PREDICTIVE SIMULATION OF IMPACT PHENOMENA FOR INNOVATIONS IN AIRCRAFT COMPONENT DESIGN
Wim Lammen, Rien Van Houten
Currently aircraft designers are facing a big change in structural design: the change from metallic components to composite parts. There is a growing demand to accurately predict the behaviour of the innovative materials under various real-world circumstances, e.g. impact encounter. This paper focuses on the mathematical challenges that arise here. Two case studies are presented. First, modelling of landing gear is presented, with focus on real-time simulation. Second, bird collisions on the wing leading edges are modelled, where strength and damage resistance of the structure are of prime importance. It is shown that these seemingly different studies benefit from a common mathematical starting point.