Dynamic Loading on Turbofan Blades due to Bird-Strike
In the present paper, a hydrodynamic bird material model made up of water and air mixture is developed, which produces good correlation with the measured strain-gage test data in a panel test. This parametric bird projectile model is used to generate the time-history of the transient dynamic loads on the turbofan engine blades for different size birds impacting at varying span locations of the fan blade. The problem is formulated in 3-D vector dynamics equations using a non-linear trajectory analysis approach. The analytical derivation captures the physics of the slicing process by considering the incoming bird in the shape of a cylindrical impactor as it comes into contact with the rotating fan blades modeled as a pre-twisted plate with a camber. The contact-impact dynamic loading on the airfoil produced during the bird-strike is determined by solving the coupled non-linear dynamical equations governing the movement of the bird-slice in time-domain using a sixth-order Runge-Kutta technique. The analytically predicted family of load time-history curves enables the blade designer to readily identify the critical impact location for peak dynamic loading condition during the bird-ingestion tests mandated for certification by the regulatory agencies.