Mass and performance optimization of an airplane wing leading edge structure against bird strike using Taguchi-based grey relational analysis

Collisions between birds and aircraft are one of the most dangerous threats to flight safety. In this study, smoothed particles hydrodynamics (SPH) method is used for simulating the bird strike to an airplane wing leading edge structure. In order to verify the model, first, experiment of bird strike to a flat aluminum plate is simulated, and then bird impact on an airplane wing leading edge structure is investigated. After that, considering dimensions of wing internal structural components like ribs, skin and spar as design variables, we try to minimize structural mass and wing skin deformation simultaneously. To do this, bird strike simulations to 18 different wing structures are made based on Taguchi’s L18 factorial design of experiment. Then grey relational analysis is used to minimize structural mass and wing skin deformation due to the bird strike. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) is also applied and it is concluded that the most significant parameter for the performance of wing structure against impact is the skin thickness. Finally, a validation simulation is conducted under the optimal condition to show the improvement of performance of the wing structure.