Calculation and experimental methodology for studying the aircraft windshield for bird strike resistance

The windshield design plays an important role in studying the problem of bird strike resistance of glazing, therefore the researchers pay much attention not only to the development of finite element models of glazing and the bird, but also to the analysis of various geometries and materials. As a result of the impact, in accordance with the international certification standards, the windshield must not only withstand the bird strike, but also prevent complete fragmentation of all transparent materials, provide acceptable visibility for safe flight continuation and landing. A technique for computational modeling of the dynamic process of a bird strike on the full structure of the aircraft windshield (one panel) in the LS DYNA software package has been developed. In the computational modeling technique of bird strike resistance of glazing, the SPH method is used to take into account the bird parameters. In the computational model glass is considered as an elastic-plastic brittle material, while the polymer interlayer behaves as a viscous medium providing high deformation before destruction and good tensile strength. A cylinder is selected as a bird model. In accordance with the requirements of the fail-safe performance, the windshield is multilayered. The results of computational modeling of the impact dynamic process and the stress-strain state of the windshield were obtained, which confirm the ability of the glass to withstand a bird strike, taking into account its material properties and geometric characteristics (small impact angles and double curvature), which allows the bird to slide along the windshield and thereby reduce the kinetic energy transferred to it. According to the results of the computational modeling, the windshield withstood the bird strike. In addition, the results of computational studies were obtained, which made it possible to estimate the effect of the bird strike angles, where the birds were of different masses, on the stresses of the windshield surface, as well as the angle of the windshield inclination when assessing bird strike resistance, which can be used when designing the windshield structure. The results of the research and tests of the aircraft windshield for bird strike resistance using the proposed methodology with a pneumatic gun confirmed the results of the computational modeling.

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