BIRD STRIKE STUDIES ON A TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT HORIZONTAL TAIL

摘要

This paper presents bird strike studies on a typical horizontal tail (HT) of a transport aircraft. FAR regulations dictate that the horizontal tail of a transport aircraft be able to sustain impact damage caused by an eight pound bird. Bird strikes on tail planes though less frequent than on windshields and radomes can cause loss of control and eventually lead to accidents. It appears that there are a number of approaches associated with strike modelling including Eulerian and Lagrangian models. Realistic representation of the component is also driven by modelling the nonlinear material behaviour, contact between sub components, self-contact and progressive damage after impact. Thus, impact on lifting and control surfaces of an aircraft while causing local damage make the aircraft vulnerable to progressive system failures. This paper addresses these issues using explicit FEA codes by modelling the bird and the structural component using both Lagrangian and Eulerian models and discusses vulnerability scenarios associated with this kind of impact damage.