Study of Bird Strikes Using Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics and Stochastic Parametric Evaluation

One of the major threats to aviation safety is the in-flight impact of birds. Aircraft windshields are highlyvulnerable to damage and hence need a certification for a proven level of impact resistance. Bird-strike experimentsare expensive; therefore, explicit numerical modeling techniques are particularly important for the study of thisproblem. This research relies mainly on the theory of hydrodynamic impact and addresses basic shock-waveequations. It uses a smooth particle hydrodynamics approach and conducts a numerical simulation using a contact-impact coupling algorithm. Thefinite-element model has been verified by comparison with available experimentalfindings. Additionally, the work adopts a design-of-experiments approach, factorial design, to predict economicallythefactors thatsignificantlyaffect the pressure responsein bird-strike analysis.Theparametersinvestigated includeimpact velocity, bird mass, bird aspect ratio, porosity, and obliquity of impact. The results show that the velocity ofimpact and the interaction between porosity and obliquity have the greatest pressure response in a bird-strikeanalysis