Experimental and numerical investigation on the bird impact resistance of novel composite sandwich panels

Bird strikes represent a major hazard to the aerospace composite structures, due to their low impact resistance. Accurate selection and lay up of the materials in the composite structure can significantly improve the out of plane properties of the composites. However, application of the complex hybrid sandwich composites into bird strike proof structures was not investigated yet. Therefore, this work was focused on the soft body impact resistance of a novel composite design for aerospace applications. The investigation was divided into experimental and modelling parts. In the beginning of this thesis, the numerical techniques for modelling of bird im¬pact and composite materials were studied. The theoretical background for the corresponding issue was provided, followed by the thorough validation of the exist¬ing numerical approaches. A Smooth Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) method was chosen for the modelling of the soft body. This modelling technique was validated against experimental data for the rotating fan blade. Three parametric studies of bird impacting fan blades revealed strong influence of the bird impact location and timing on the final deformed shape of the blade. Moreover, it was proved that the SPH is capable of reproducing the exact load on the structure and is appropriate technique for modelling bird strikes. [...cont.]