Modeling and Simulation Environment for Lightweight Helicopter Wire Strike Protection System Analysis

摘要

Wire strike accidents are a category of aviation accidents which entail an aircraft or rotor-craft colliding with power lines, communication wires, and any other mounted wires. Currently, there are a limited amount of helicopter equipment options available to protect helicopters from collision with a wire. In particular, there is no commercially available protection system for most lightweight rotorcraft against wire strike events. Indeed, the Wire Strike Protection System (WSPS) developed by Magellan Aerospace is mainly available for medium to heavy weight helicopters. The currently available passive protection system consists of a windshield deflector and sets of two angled blades mounted on the top and under the belly of the helicopter, as well as on the skids when applicable. The system relies on the momentum of the helicopter to successfully sever the wire. Lightweight helicopters may have more difficulty using these protection systems due to having less momentum, but the efficacy of passive protection systems on lightweight helicopters has not been fully defined thus far. The goal of the present study is to develop a modeling and simulation environment enabling the analysis of wire strike events by integrating simulations of helicopter dynamics, wire behavior upon a dynamic impact, and mechanics of wire cutting with shear. The main output of the modeling and simulation environment is the prediction of whether a given type of wire will be severed by a wire cutter mounted on a specified helicopter type. A model combining techniques in cutting mechanics and wire dynamics was implemented, and the results show accordance with experimental studies of the WSPS and accident reports involving the WSPS. The estimated benefits of the tool that was created are both the quantification of the limitations that lightweight helicopters face in using current passive wire strike protection systems, as well the creation of an environment to model and simulate future mechanically enhanced protection system designs.