Numerical simulation of a UAV impacting engine fan blades

Abstract A 3D digital model of a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is obtained by using the method of scanning reverse modeling and joint mapping. A numerical simulation of a small UAV strikes on rotary engine blades, presented in this paper, was performed with a Transient Nonlinear Finite Element code PAM-CRASH software. A test of motor strike on plate was developed and the dynamic response of the plate were obtained to validate the numerical simulation method of a UAV strike on blades. Based on this, dynamic damage response caused by UAV on the engine blades were studied. It is indicated that the impact process between the UAV and a single blade can be divided into two typical stages: cutting and impact. Cutting mainly leads to the failure of the leading edge material, and impact mainly leads to the plastic deformation of the blade. At the same time, it is compared with the damage impacted by bird with same mass. For the same mass of bird and UAV, the damage caused by UAV striking fan blade is more serious, and 1.345 kg UAV striking fan blade of typical civil aviation engine is enough to cause damage to flight safety.