Aerospace

Aerospace structures are thin, light and often made of composite laminates, so there is very little margin to hide behind. Impact from hail or debris, vibration in service and thermal loads all have to be checked. The useful answer is usually where damage starts and how it grows, because that decides inspection intervals and repair limits.

Shirsh Technosolutions runs explicit dynamic, composite and structural FEA in ANSYS Mechanical. On a recent radome job we modelled hail as SPH particles striking a thin composite sandwich wall over repeated hits, and found the point at which the outer skin first perforates. The same methods carry over to fairings, panels, brackets and other lightweight structures.