High-Speed Bird Impact Analysis of Aircraft Windshield by Using a Nonlinear Viscoelastic Model
In this study, a numerical model was established to predict the dynamic response of PMMA based polymeric aircraft windshield against high speed bird impact. A detailed nonlinear viscoelastic constitutive model with tensile failure criterion was used to predict the damage and failure of windshield structure. The numerical model was implemented by employing user defined material subroutine (UMAT) in explicit finite element (FE) solver LS-DYNA 3D. Numerical results were validated against experimental data and further investigations were carried out to study the influence of increased bird velocity and impact location on windshield. On the basis of numerical results, the limiting bird velocity and critical impact location on windshield were determined. The study will help to optimize the design of windshields against high speed bird strikes.