Numerical Analysis of Hail Ice Material Model Under Variable Velocity Impact

Hail ice impact events are very usual and hazardous to aircraft structures particularly in adverse weather. Hail ice impact falls under the preview of the Foreign Object Damage (FOD) and the aircraft structures are required to be validated for certification of the aircrafts. Numerical simulation is an cost effective method before the experimental studies. The modeling of the hail ice characteristics is a significant challenge in area of the soft body impact. Hail Ice is modeled using Lagrangian Method and is used effectively in impact application. This paper presents load-time history and peak force for each impact and is quantified for hail ice with variable diameter of 12.7mm, 25.4mm and 38.1mm. Numerical simulation is done using commercially available code LS-DYNA with variable velocities between 25 – 150 m/s. An increase of 96% peak force was found at 150 m/s impact velocity with hail ice diameter varying between 12.7mm to 38.1mm and mass variation of 0.89g to 23.68g.