Several impact events are known to affect the aircrafts airworthiness, namely, bird or hail strike and impacts from uncontained engine rotor failure or other metal debris. Therefore, improvement of impact protection solutions for the cockpit, front and lateral panels is required, capable of endure such events without weight penalty. Several manufacturing technologies were implemented and tested up to 200 m/s with a compressed air gas cannon assembled a smooth bore barrel of 4 meters. Steel and hail spheres were used as projectiles and driven with a sabot. A digital chronograph and two high-speed cameras provide the impact velocities. Ultrasonic phase-array and x-ray inspection were performed to assess the damage. Evaluation was performed by comparison with the provided baselines. Among the tested solutions, carbon fibers impregnated with an epoxy resin doped with carbon nanotubes presented the best energy absorption performance for hail impacts. On the other hand, for metal sphere impacts, a fiber metal laminate solution made of aluminium and Dyneema® present the best behaviour.
Abstract
Several impact events are known to affect the aircrafts airworthiness, namely, bird or hail strike and impacts from uncontained engine rotor failure or other metal debris. Therefore, improvement of impact protection solutions for the cockpit, [...]
Several impact events are known to affect the aircrafts airworthiness, namely, bird or hail strike and impacts from uncontained engine rotor failure or other metal debris. Therefore, improvement of impact protection solutions for the cockpit, front and lateral panels is required, capable of endure such events without weight penalty. Several manufacturing technologies were implemented and tested up to 200 m/s with a compressed air gas cannon assembled a smooth bore barrel of 4 meters. Steel and hail spheres were used as projectiles and driven with a sabot. A digital chronograph and two high-speed cameras provide the impact velocities. Ultrasonic phase-array and x-ray inspection were performed to assess the damage. Evaluation was performed by comparison with the provided baselines. Among the tested solutions, carbon fibers impregnated with an epoxy resin doped with carbon nanotubes presented the best energy absorption performance for hail impacts. On the other hand, for metal sphere impacts, a fiber metal laminate solution made of aluminium and Dyneema® present the best behaviour.
Abstract
Several impact events are known to affect the aircrafts airworthiness, namely, bird or hail strike and impacts from uncontained engine rotor failure or other metal debris. Therefore, improvement of impact protection solutions for the cockpit, [...]