The particle finite element method for the numerical simulation of bird strike

The Particle Finite Element Method (PFEM) is evaluated in the context of the numerical simulation of bird strike events. To assess the possibilities of the method, theoretical analyses are initially performed based on the impact of a water jet on a rigid surface. Then, the influence of the geometry of a more realistic projectile is analyzed and the capability of the method to take into account separation and fragmentation is highlighted. Finally, the method is tested for impacts against deformable targets, using a partitioned algorithm with dynamic relaxation for the fluid-structure interaction, combining the PFEM for the description of the bird with a non-linear Finite Element approach for the description of the impacted structure, which can undergo large plastic deformations. To assess the quality of the obtained results a series of numerical examples from the literature has been selected and used as a reference throughout the paper. Among the studies presented in this work also a novel numerical benchmark for the evaluation of bird impact simulations is proposed.