Numerical Assessment of Drone and Bird Strike Severity Investigation on Helicopter Display Panels

Abstract:
The exponential growth of the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) market has raised concerns about potential airborne collisions between drones and manned aircraft. Aviation authorities EASA and FAA have issued beneficial reports concerning damage severity levels, airworthiness standards, drone modeling and related methods. These reports reveal a significant finding: drone impacts typically result in greater damage severity than bird strikes at equivalent initial kinetic energy. The investigation particularly focuses on the impact on flight-critical systems, specifically display panels, which play a crucial role in transmitting essential flight data to the flight crew under all conditions. To assess the mechanical shock response following a collision and compare the acceleration results with MIL-STD-810 crash shock standards, simulations were conducted for both drone collisions and bird strikes. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the implications of drone collisions and bird strikes on the most critical helicopter nose regions using the LS-DYNA solver.

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