Application of Numerical Methods for Crashworthiness Investigation of a Large Aircraft Wing Impact with a Tree

This paper demonstrates the application of a numerical methodology for a full-scale aircraft impact crashworthiness investigation. We studied the impact of an aircraft wing with a tree using LS-DYNA and ANSYS CFX. In particular, a detailed finite element model of the wing structure was represented as a box structure containing skin, spars and ribs, and fuel was represented as a distributed mass. We utilized several material models and verified them using leading-edge bird strike and wood bending experiments. Wood model Mat 143 with material parameters developed based on the wood bending test was found to be the most accurate in comparison with the experiment. We used the commercially available Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software of ANSYS CFX to calculate the aerodynamic pressure distribution on the overall surface of the wing. The algorithm utilized the full three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations for steady-state compressible fluid. LS-DYNA finite element model included aerodynamic pressures on the wings surfaces. Parametric studies showed that the tree model cannot destroy the lifting surface of the wing except the fragment of the leading edge. In every simulation scenario, the first spar of the wing cut through the tree and the upper part of the tree fell in the direction of the movement of the airplane.