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International Journal of Impact Engineering ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]

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FE analysis of geometry effects of an artificial bird striking an

aeroengine fan blade
S.A. Meguid, R.H. Mao, T.Y. Ng
Division of Aerospace Engineering, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue,
Singapore 639798, Singapore
Received 9 January 2007; received in revised form 24 April 2007; accepted 27 April 2007

Abstract

Bird strike resistance of aeroengines is a strict certification requirement. Apart from costly experimental bird strike tests, explicit
numerical modeling techniques have been employed. However, due to the complicated bird geometry, artificial bird models are still not
well defined and it is a perennial problem selecting an appropriate representative artificial bird geometry for the simulations. To examine
the relative effects of the artificial bird geometry, explicit 3-D finite element analyses are conducted herein using the commercial code LS-
DYNA. As a validation test, we first studied the nonlinear transient dynamic response of an artificial bird striking a rigid flat target.
Following the validation, we studied the impact behavior of an artificial bird impinging a flexible aeroengine fan blade. The study focused
on the three most-frequently used configurations in the literature: namely, hemispherical-ended cylinder, straight-ended cylinder, and
ellipsoid, at various length-to-diameter aspect ratios. The results show that the initial contact area between the bird and target in the early
phase of the impact event would have a significant effect on the peak impact force. The aspect ratio of the bird striking both rigid panel
and flexible fan blade was found to have little influence on the normalized impact force and impulse.
r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Bird strike; Artificial bird configuration; Aspect ratio; Rigid panel; Flexible fan blade

1. Introduction of events. It is conservatively estimated by the Interna-

Ever since they began to share the sky with the birds a
century ago, aircrafts have been perpetually suffering from
bird strikes. In fact, about 90% of all foreign object
damage (FOD) can be traced to avian origins. Presently, all
available evidence suggests that the bird strike hazard is
increasing, and this can be attributed to globalization and
conservation, which has resulted in the steady increase in
air traffic density levels as well as the dramatic expansion of
wild bird populations [1], Fig. 1. These strikes pose a real
danger to the lives of aircraft crew members and their
passengers, and the potential for severe consequences
following a strike is becoming more and more significant.
This is because modern jet airliners are carrying more and
more passengers, and it is well known that even minor
damage due to FOD can easily lead to a catastrophic chain
Corresponding author. Tel.: +65 67904040; fax: +65 67913502.
E-mail address: mshaker@ntu.edu.sg (S.A. Meguid).
tional Birdstrike Research Group [2] that collisions
between aircraft and birds cost the aviation industry
worldwide over US$1.2 billion each year. As a result,
certification authorities require that all exposed aircraft
components must be tested to prove their capability to
withstand the most adverse impact loading. Special
attention has always been given to the aeroengine, which,
alongside being the most vulnerable aircraft component or
system to bird strikes, is also the only power plant of a jet
airliner. The fan blade is the first component of an
aeroengine that comes in contact with the bird in a bird
strike event, and the resulting plastic deformation and
fracture of the fan blade may lead to partial or total loss of
thrust, as well as possible containment failure which is
strictly prohibited by aviation regulatory authorities, such
as the FAA [3]. In fact, even a minor damage to fan blades
may introduce engine unbalance.
In the 1970s, the validation of the structural integrity
and resistance to bird strike of aircraft components was

0734-743X/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2007.04.008

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Nomenclature (in SI units) Pad normalized impact pressure, Pad ¼

ðF =Across Þ=PTH
s
Across average cross-sectional area of bird, Across ¼ T normalized time, T ¼ t=T 0 ¼ t=ðL=w_ 0 Þ
m=r0 L ðm2 Þ T0 nominal impact duration, T 0 ¼ L=w_ 0 ðsÞ
D diameter of bird (m) t time (s)
E Young’s modulus of the blade material (Pa) u,v,w displacements in X, Y, and Z directions (m)
F impact or contact force between bird and target w_ 0 initial velocity of bird, w_ 0 ¼ 225 m/s
(N) X,Y,Z cartesian coordinates (m)
I Rimpulse between bird and target, I ¼ sij stress tensor (Pa)
1
0 F dt ðN sÞ e_ij strain rate tensor (s1)
Iad normalized impulse, I ad ¼ I=m w_ 0 r instantaneous mass density of bird (kg/m3)
L length of bird (m) r0 initial mass density of bird, r0 ¼ 934.3 kg/m3
L/D aspect ratio (or length-to-diameter ratio) of m mass density changing ratio of bird, m ¼
bird geometry ðr=r0 Þ  1
m mass of bird, m ¼ 1.82 kg V Poisson ratio of the fan blade material
P pressure (Pa) g kinematic viscosity coefficient of fluidic bird
PTH
s theoretical stagnation pressure, pTH
s ¼ material (m2/s)
2
ð1=2Þr0 w_ 0 ðPaÞ

solely dependent on experiments. It was established by
Barber et al. [4] that the loads generated by a high-speed
impacting bird were adequately duplicated by representing
the bird as a circular cylinder with the same mass, density,
and compressibility as the bird tissue. Shortly thereafter,
Wilbeck [5] noted the fact that, in case of high-speed
impact, the response of the bird is similar to that of a fluid
(such as water) where the strength of the bird material is
extremely small compared with the impact loads. In
addition, high-speed photography was employed by Gao
and Li [6] and Teichman and Tardos [7] to record the
evolution of the bird torso and the large deformations of
the targets such as aeroengine fan blades, through which
the fluidic property hypothesis of the bird tissue under
high-speed impact scenarios was further strengthened.
These experimental tests, however, are very expensive,
time-consuming and difficult to perform. Besides, due to
the extremely high velocities and energies involved, the
experimental registration of the impact parameters can
often prove difficult and complex.
With the development of advanced numerical techniques
and the advent of high-performance computing, numerical
simulations have been more widely used since the 1980s to
evaluate the impact capability of different aircraft compo-
nents. Explicit nonlinear finite element (FE) codes, which
are available in several high-end commercial FE solvers,
have been used to treat this class of problems. An accurate
numerical model can reveal a significant amount of useful

Fig. 1. Bird-strike frequency in recent years in the USA [1].

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Fig. 2. The three configurations considered for the artificial bird model: (a) straight-ended cylinder, (b) hemispherical-ended cylinder, and (c) ellipsoid.
information to the designer with regard to the mechanisms
involved in the high-speed soft body impact event. Having
privy to these information prior to conducting experi-
mental tests enables the rapid and economical design of
aircraft structures with enhanced impact resistance. In
conjunction with the broadened application of numerical
techniques to bird strike modeling and simulation, the
artificial bird has substituted real birds, mainly for better
repeatability and convenience [8].
For all its promise, the reliability of the numerical results
is critically dependent on the accurate modeling of the
temporal and spatial distribution of the impact force
between the bird and target [9,10]. In connection with this,
the complex and intricate geometrical configurations of
different bird species have perpetually posed a problem for
developing a sufficiently simplified and consistent bird
model. Many researchers such as Frischbier [11], Langrand
et al. [12], McCarthy et al. [13], and Airoldi and Cacchione
[14], have simplified the bird torso as a hemispherical-
ended cylinder. The ellipsoid geometry is also a well-
accepted choice, which has been suggested by the Interna-
tional Birdstrike Research Group [15], and has been used
by Guan et al. [16]. Besides these two configurations, the
straight-ended cylinder has also been adopted by Brock-
man and Held [17], but its application remains somewhat
infrequent. These three configurations, which are typical of
artificial bird geometries, are shown schematically in Fig. 2.
Nevertheless, the differences among the impact behaviors
associated with these different configurations have not
been reported in the open literature. Furthermore, the
effect of the length-to-diameter aspect ratio (representing
the biometric property of different bird species) is also
examined.
It has been highly recommended by the International
Birdstrike Research Group that the bird model, once
standardized, should become the norm for all bird impact
testing thereafter [18]. From the simulation viewpoint,
standardizing the geometry of the artificial bird model is
correspondingly important. Both the bird configuration
and aspect ratio have been found to be important
parameters that influence the impact response of the target
[19]. Thus, the aim of the present investigation is to
compare and analyze the numerical results for the above-
mentioned three different bird configurations, and various
aspect ratios will also be considered. The simulation will be
carried out using highly accurate Lagrangian-based explicit
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3
nonlinear FE analysis. The flexible fan blade adopted in the
present investigation is a typical metallic wide-chord
aeroengine fan blade.
2. Finite element modeling in a Lagrangian framework
The finite element method (FEM) has been found to be
very powerful in the numerical simulation of the crash-
worthiness and failure analyses [20]. The coupling between
the bird and the target can be achieved by a Lagrangian
formulation. During high-speed impact, large strain
distortions will inevitably occur to the discretized Lagran-
gian bird, leading to a decrease in solution time-step and
possible negative elemental volumes. The excessively
distorted elements that possess negative volumes are then
eliminated after each time step. However, this automatic
elimination procedure usually introduces artificial oscilla-
tions in the contact force between the bird and target.
Fortunately, the strategy of employing highly refined
meshes that encounter element elimination can be used to
alleviate this problem [21]. Modern high-performance
computing systems can tolerate very small time steps in
the order of 109 s or even 101 s, where it used to be
106–107 s, just a few years ago. Thus, by refining the
mesh of the Lagrangian bird, the artificial oscillations
associated with the impact force can be dramatically
reduced.
2.1. Bird properties
The bird’s mechanical property actually changes from
the low-velocity to the high-velocity regimes. Generally, the
mechanical property of typical avian tissues at low
speeds is neither uniform nor homogeneous. However, at
progressively higher speeds, this nonuniformity and
inhomogeneity become increasingly negligible, and the
bird can safely be considered as a homogeneous jet
of fluid impinging a structure [5]. Thus, the constitu-
tive material law of homogenized fluidic materials can be
used:
sij ¼ Pdij þ 2rg e_ij . (1)
There are different hydrodynamic models which have
been successfully used to describe the material proper-
ties of the bird in compression and among which
the most popularly used is the polynomial fitted pressure
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equation: DYNA), with 31 nodes in the axial direction and 61 nodes

in the radial direction found to provide sufficiently
p ¼ C 0 þ C 1 m þ C 2 m2 þ C 3 m3 , (2)
converged results. In addition, the Hughes–Liu formula-
where m is the nondimensional mass density changing ratio tion was used to eliminate the hourglass modes. The
of the bird tissue earlier defined in the nomenclature. Here,
we model the loading from the bird as a pressure pulse on
the structure. This is a feasible approach and we can also
avoid modeling the bird disintegrating into numerous
debris particles. The Brockman compressible modules [17]
are employed in the present simulations, whereby
8
> C 0 ¼ 0;
>
>
< C 1 ¼ 2323 MPa;
(3)
>
> C 2 ¼ 5026 MPa;
>
:
C 3 ¼ 15180 MPa:
The total mass of the bird is 4 lb (or 1.82 kg), which is
presently used as the upper limit of the bird mass criteria in
the bird–aircraft strike scenarios [22]. Its initial mass
Fig. 3. Discretized geometries of the three bird configurations used.
density is set at 934.3 kg/m3, while the initial velocity of
the bird is taken to be 225 m/s in the normal Z-direction.
Table 1 lists the detailed parameters of three geometries
with the commonly used aspect ratio of 2.0:1. Table 2 lists
all diameters of hemispherical-ended cylindrical birds with
aspect ratios 1.5:1, 2.0:1, and 2.5:1. The bird model is
meshed with 3-D 8-node fully integrated solid elements
(Solid-164 in LS-DYNA) with a characterized ratio of bird
diameter to mesh size of 32, as shown in Fig. 3, which is
found to provide efficient simulation runs without com-
promising on accuracy. In addition, the hourglass energy is
found to be well controlled in the present simulation.

2.2. The flexible fan blade

A sector of the fan disk, composed of a single blade and

a hub section, as shown in Figs. 4(a) and (b), is used in the
present simulation. The hub is assumed to be fixed and Fig. 4. A schematic diagram of a bird striking a flexible fan blade: (a)
rigid in comparison with the blade. The deformable blade isometric view, and (b) top view.
is discretized using the 2-D shell elements (Shell-163 in LS-

Table 1
Details of the different bird configurations considered (aspect ratio is
2.0:1)

Configuration Straight-ended Hemispherical- Ellipsoid

type cylinder ended cylinder

Length L (m) 0.214 0.228 0.246

Diameter D (m) 0.107 0.114 0.123

Table 2
Details of the different bird aspect ratios considered (configuration is
hemispherical-ended cylinder)

Aspect ratio L/D 1.5:1 2.0:1 2.5:1

Length L (m) 0.192 0.228 0.260

Diameter D (m) 0.128 0.114 0.104 Fig. 5. Velocity vectors of the bird at T ¼ 0.05 when impacting a rigid
target: (a) side view, and (b) isometric view.

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hourglass coefficient was set to 0.1, quadratic bulk viscosity

to 1.5, and linear bulk viscosity to 0.06.
Fan blades of modern aeroengines are typically made of
titanium alloy Ti–6A1–4V. Due to the high strain rates
associated with this problem, the constitutive law used is of
the viscoplastic type originally devised by Perzyna [23]
sy ðpeff ; _peff Þ ¼ sy ðpeff Þð1 þ ð_peff =CÞ1=p Þ, (4)
where _peff
is the effective plastic strain rate, and is sy ðpeff Þ
the initial quasi-static yield stress of the blade material. C
and P are strain rate sensitive parameters determined by
experiments. The magnitudes of the relevant parameters
are listed as follows:
8
>
> E ¼ 1:14  1011 Pa;
>
>
>
> v ¼ 0:33;
>
>
>
<r 3 3
blade ¼ 4:429  10 kg m ;
p (5)
>
>
8
sy ðeff Þ ¼ 1:14  10 Pa;
>
>
>
> C ¼ 40:0 s1 ;
>
>
>
:
P ¼ 5:0: Fig. 6. Deformation history of a bird impacting a rigid target: (a) T ¼ 0,
(b) T ¼ 0.25, (c) T ¼ 0.5, (d) T ¼ 0.75, and (e) T ¼ l.

simulation results reported in the literature, the present

3. Results and discussion
3.1. Bird striking a rigid panel
Fig. 5 shows a typical example of the velocity vectors for
the hemispherical-ended cylindrical bird model striking a
rigid target at a normalized time J ¼ t/T0 ¼ 0.05. The
simulations begin at the instant the traveling bird impinges
the target. Both side and isometric views are shown in that
figure. It shows that the bird has been deformed, with its
right tip contacting the target (Fig. 5(a)). The maximum
velocity of the fluidic bird elements, which appears near the
frontal surfaces of the bird close to the target, is found to
be approximately 123 m/s at this instant of impact.
The time histories of the bird impacting a rigid panel for
different phases are depicted in Fig. 6. The hydrodynamic
fluid-like behavior of the bird can be clearly observed from
T ¼ 0.5 onwards. During the impact process, the momen-
tum of the bird will be progressively absorbed by the target;
whereas the kinetic energy of the bird will be dissipated in
terms of heat, as well as manifested by the elimination of
some of the bird elements. Finally, the bird elements, with
the umbrella-like configuration, do not possess additional
forward momentum, and the impact process is completed
at the normalized time T ¼ l. Nevertheless, following this
impact event, the bird elements continue to deform and
expand outwards.
Fig. 7 shows the variation of the normalized impact
pressure over time. It is compared with the experimental
data from the GARTEUR Bird Strike Group [24] as well
as the numerical results of Langrand et al. [12]. It is clearly
observed that the present numerical results correspond well
with the experimental data. When compared with the
result exhibits fewer oscillations than those prevalent in
earlier studies, and is clearly more stable. This can be
attributed to the fine mesh density used in discretizing the
bird geometry. Specifically, we used a bird-to-element
length ratio of about 32, compared with 8 used by Stoll and
Brockman [25], and Airoldi and Cacchione [14]. The peak
value of the pressure from the present simulation is about
20% lower than that of the experimental data, and this
difference is probably due to the use of water-compressible
modules for the bird’s material model, which under-
estimates the behavior of a real bird.
3.1.1. Effects of bird configuration
Fig. 8(a) shows the impact force variations for different
configurations of the bird model. It is found that the
straight-ended cylinder reaches its maximum impact force
of 7.99  105 N at about 0.049 ms after initial contact, and
there is only one dominant peak in its contact force profile.
However, there are two quite distinct peaks corresponding
to the hemispherical-ended cylinder and ellipsoid models.
The hemispherical-ended cylinder reaches its maximum
force of 5.27  105 N at 0.054 ms, and its second peak of
3.33  l05 N at 0.134 ms, although this second peak is not
as significant as the first one. The ellipsoid model, on the
other hand, reaches its first peak of 3.60  105 N at
0.111 ms, and its second peak of 3.78  l05 N at 0.28 ms.
Interestingly, this second peak is found to be the maximum
magnitude in its force variation time history. Among the
three different bird geometries, the maximum impact force
for the straight-ended cylindrical bird is the highest. This is
because at the instant the three types of bird configurations
impinge the rigid target, the straight-ended cylindrical bird
has comparatively the largest instantaneous contact area.

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Fig. 7. Variation of normalized impact pressure versus normalized time for a hemispherical-ended cylindrical bird impinging a rigid panel.

Fig. 8. Effect of artificial bird configurations on rigid impact forces and pressures: (a) impact forces, and (b) normalized impact pressures.

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Fig. 9. Effect of aspect ratios of artificial birds on rigid impact forces and pressures: (a) impact forces, and (b) normalized impact pressures.

This also explains why there is only one significant peak in
its force variation, and it is because all the elements of this
bird model will decelerate immediately and dramatically
once it impacts the target. However, this situation is quite
different for the hemispherical-ended cylinder and ellipsoi-
dal birds. Since the bird in the high-speed impact scenarios
behaves as a liquid, the shear stress between the bird’s
elements flowing on neighboring streamlines, compared
with the local high pressure, is comparatively negligible.
This has been experimentally observed by Barber et al. [4],
Wilbeck [5] and Gao and Li [6]. The present investigation
treats the bird hydro-dynamically, and neglects the fluidic
viscous effect of the bird tissue. Therefore, for the
hemispherical-ended cylinder and ellipsoidal birds, only
the elements directly downstream of those in contact with
the target will experience the dramatic deceleration,
whereas the other elements will not decelerate significantly
until their frontal elements come into contact with the
target. Thus, when impact progresses for the hemisphe-
rical-ended cylinder or ellipsoidal birds, the contact forces
decrease after the initial peaks, but will increase again,
leading to their respective second peaks. This second peak
is quite distinct in the ellipsoidal case, but rather less
pronounced in the hemispherical-ended cylindrical bird
case. In the ellipsoid model, the contact area reaches its
maximum value somewhat late into the impact event. It
occurs at approximately the midpoint of the entire impact
duration, which explains the presence of its second peak.
The normalized impact pressure evolutions for the three
bird configurations are plotted in Fig. 8(b). It should be
noted that because the cross-sectional areas vary along the
geometrical axes of the hemispherical-ended cylinder and
the ellipsoid models, the normalization is based on their
respective averaged cross-sectional areas. The maximum
normalized impact pressure is found to be 3.73 at
T ¼ 0.055 for the straight-ended cylinder, 2.61 at

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Fig. 10. Effect of aspect ratios of artificial birds on rigid impact impulse.

T ¼ 0.053 for the hemispherical-ended cylinder, and 2.00 at

T ¼ 0.27 for the ellipsoid model. Thus, the maximum
impact pressure for the straight-ended cylinder impact case
is about 43% higher than the hemispherical-ended cylinder
case, and the latter is about 30% higher than the ellipsoid
case.

3.1.2. Effects of bird aspect ratio

In this section, the 4 lb bird with mass density 934.3 kg/m
was simulated at different aspect ratios of 1.5:1, 2.0:1, and
2.5:1. We selected the hemispherical-ended cylinder geo-
metry for the simulations. The impact force evolutions are
plotted in Fig. 9(a). Due to its largest cross-sectional areas,
the model with 1.5:1 aspect ratio has a maximum impact
force of 6.57  l05 N, and it drops to zero first at 0.62 ms.
The peak impact forces for the 2.0:1 and 2.5:1 cases are
5.27  l05 and 4.62  l05 N, respectively. This is due to the
variance in their respective cross-sectional areas. Fig. 9(b)
shows that the peak values for the three cases are much the
same after normalization, being 2.75 for aspect ratio 1.5:1,
Fig. 11. Deformation history for a hemispherical-ended cylindrical bird
2.62 for aspect ratio 2.0:1, and 2.61 for aspect ratio 2.5:1. impinging a flexible fan blade: (a) T ¼ 0, (b) T ¼ 0.25, (c) T ¼ 0.5, (d)
Thus, we note that the aspect ratio does not affect the T ¼ 0.75, (e) T ¼ l, and (f) T ¼ 1.34.
normalized maximum impact pressure significantly. The
impulses for the three aspect ratios are shown in Fig. 10. It
is found that the impulse, after normalization, is 0.29 for T ¼ 1.34. The time histories of the impact process at
the aspect ratio 1.5:1, 0.23 for the aspect ratio 2.0:1, and different phases are shown in Fig. 11. The deformation of
0.26 for the aspect ratio 2.5:1. the blade when the impact force finally vanishes is also
shown in Fig. 11(f). Nevertheless, both the bird and the
3.2. Bird striking a fan blade blade will continue deforming even after the impact force
vanishes. However, in the present investigation, only the
In these simulations, the bird impacts the fan blade at a major bird–blade coupled effects are of interest, and we
height of 85% radius of the blade from the hub. Due to the terminate the simulation when the impact force vanishes.
flexibility of the fan blade, the impact duration will be
longer than the nominal impact time T0 ¼ L/w0. For 3.2.1. Effects of bird configuration
example, for the hemispherical-ended cylindrical bird, its The impact forces between the hemispherical-ended
impact with the fan blade is completed at normalized time cylindrical bird and the fan blade are shown in Fig. 12.

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Fig. 12. Impact force variations for a hemispherical-ended cylindrical bird (UD ¼ 2.0) striking a flexible fan blade.

Fig. 13. Effect of artificial bird configurations on normalized impact pressure when striking a flexible fan blade.

Since the geometry of the blade is curved, the impact forces
are resolved into the X, Y, and Z directions. However, it
can be seen from this figure that the impact force in the Z-
direction is dominant, because the initial velocity of the
bird is in the Z-direction. Henceforth, only the results in
the Z-direction will be shown in the following results.
There are multiple peaks in the impact force evolution,
which is due to the coupling between the bird and the
flexible blade. The blade, upon being impacted by the bird,
accelerates in the same direction as the bird’s initial
velocity, i.e., the Z-direction. When this happens, the
frontal elements of the bird which are in close contact with
the blade would expand and their high pressures would
thus decrease. Therefore, the total impact force would also
decrease dramatically. Consequently, with the lowered
impact force from the bird, the bending of the blade would
decelerate, and as a result the contact between the bird and
the blade becomes intense once more. The impact force
between the bird and blade would increase again. The
whole procedure will repeat several times before the impact
force eventually vanishes.
The normalized impact pressures between the birds and
fan blade are shown in Fig. 13 for all the three bird
configurations. The dominant peaks are 1.75 at T ¼ 0.094,
1.35 at T ¼ 0.189, and 0.77 at T ¼ 0.32 for the straight-
ended cylindrical bird, and 1.62 at T ¼ 0.06, 1.78 at
T ¼ 0.16, and 1.46 at T ¼ 0.45 for the hemispherical-ended
cylindrical bird. For the ellipsoidal bird, the peaks are 0.79
at T ¼ 0.06, 1.53 at T ¼ 0.16, and 1.34 at T ¼ 0.39. From
Fig. 13, we can observe that the normalized impact
pressure variation profiles for the three bird configurations
are quite different from the preceding rigid impact cases.
This is especially so for the straight-ended cylindrical bird,
which no longer possesses the highest peak impact pressure
value among the three bird configurations. As there is an
attack angle of 601 between the bird trajectory and the
blade, as shown in Fig. 4(b), the initial contact area
between the straight-ended cylindrical bird and the blade is

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not as large as the rigid panel case. Thus, the initial contact
force between the bird and target is also significantly
reduced. More importantly, the blade is not rigid but
flexible, and the maximum impact force between the
straight-ended cylindrical bird and blade is found to be
only 47% of the rigid impact case. Similar conclusions have
been reached by Shimamura et al. [10] that the target’s
flexibility strongly influences the impact force between the
bird and target. The impact force between the hemisphe-
rical-ended cylindrical bird and blade is about 68% of the
former rigid impact case, and correspondingly 76% for the
ellipsoidal bird model. Comparing the three geometries, it
is noted that the ellipsoidal bird model has a maximum
impact force, which is lower than the other two configura-
tions by about 15%.
It is also interesting to note that all the three types of
bird configurations have three significant peaks within their
variations of the impact forces. This is mainly because the
bird mass and density are similar for the three configura-
tions. By varying the mechanical properties of either the
bird or the blade, including their masses, densities and/or
other properties, it can be expected that the number of
significant peaks for the impact force may change as well.
The normalized impulse between the bird and blade is
shown in Fig. 14. The momentum of the bird is transmitted
to the fan blade over the duration of the impact process.
However, only 24.4%, 37.5%, and 40.2% of the initial
momentum of the bird are finally transmitted to the blade
in the Z-direction, for the straight-ended cylinder, hemi-
spherical-ended cylinder, and ellipsoidal bird, respectively.

Fig. 14. Effect of artificial bird configurations on normalized impulse when striking a flexible fan blade.

Fig. 15. Effect of aspect ratios of artificial birds on normalized impact pressure when striking a flexible fan blade.

Please cite this article as: Meguid SA, et al. FE analysis of geometry effects of an artificial bird striking an aeroengine fan.... Int J Impact Eng (2007),
doi:10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2007.04.008
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Fig. 16. Effect of aspect ratios of artificial birds on normalized impulse when striking a flexible fan blade.
The present simulation has been successful in suppressing
the stairway profiles of the impulse accumulation, which
was frequently observed in earlier results, such as Stoll and
Brockman [25], and Langrand et al. [12].
3.2.2. Effects of bird aspect ratio
Fig. 15 illustrates the evolution of the normalized impact
pressure between the fan blade and hemispherical-ended
cylindrical birds with three different aspect ratios of 1.5:1,
2.0:1, and 2.5:1. Since their configurations are similar, their
evolution histories are also found to be moderately
comparable. For all of the cases considered, there are
three significant peaks within their impact profiles, and all
of them reach their respective maximum values at the
second peak, at magnitudes of 1.66 for aspect ratio 1.5:1,
1.78 for aspect ratio 2.0:1, and 1.70 for aspect ratio 2.5:1.
The relative differences are less than 7%. Next, the
normalized impulse variations for the three aspect ratios
are shown in Fig. 16. It can be seen that the impulse
evolutions are quite similar as well. Within the normalized
time T ¼ 0–0.6, the impulse increases in an almost linear
manner. The rate of increase in the impulse plateaus levels
off after T ¼ 0.6. When the impact force reaches zero, we
note that 34%, 37%, and 32% of the initial momentum of
the bird has been transmitted to the fan blade, for the three
respective aspect ratios. Thus, we can draw from this study
that the aspect ratio does not have significant effects on the
normalized impact pressure and impulse results.
4. Conclusions
Bird strikes pose one of the most dangerous threats to
the safety of modern aircrafts. Bird strike tests are costly
but necessary. However, it is also highly desirable to
develop accurate predictive numerical tools to assess the
bird impact resistance of aeroengine components. In this
respect, the geometrical modeling of the artificial bird is
very important, though a widely accepted standardized
Please cite this article as: Meguid SA, et al. FE analysis of geometry effects of an artificial bird striking an aeroengine fan.... Int J Impact Eng (2007),
doi:10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2007.04.008
11
bird model has not been realized yet. To address this, three
different frequently used configurations and aspect ratios,
representing diverse biometric bird species, have been
examined in the present investigation. It is found from this
study that the initial contact area between the bird and
target in the early phase of the impact event would have a
significant effect on the peak impact force value. For the
bird model impacting a rigid target, the maximum impact
force for the case of a straight-ended cylindrical bird is
about 43% higher than that of a hemispherical-ended
cylindrical bird, which in turn is 30% higher than that of
an ellipsoidal bird. On the other hand, the impact force
profile is also found to be highly dependent on the
deformation of the fan blade. Due to the flexibility of the
curved fan blade, the maximum impact forces from the
straight-ended cylinder, hemispherical-ended cylinder, and
ellipsoidal bird models impacting the presently studied fan
blade would be respectively reduced by 53%, 32%, and
24%, when compared with their corresponding rigid
impacts. The present numerical simulations also reveal
that the length-to-diameter aspect ratio of the bird striking
both a rigid panel and a flexible fan blade has little
influence on the results, especially the normalized impact
pressure and impulse.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thanks DSO laboratories,
Singapore for their kind supports to the present investiga-
tion.
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