Abstract Hailstone impacts on aircraft have become increasingly frequent over the past 2 decades, causing significant damage to various components such as radomes, windshields, engine nacelles, and wings. Observing hailstone fragmentation during flight is extremely challenging due to the high-speed inflight conditions and the rapid nature of the fragmentation process, making it difficult to capture the exact dynamics of the event. Hailstones range in size from 0.5 inches to 4 inches in diameter, and this size variability influences the extent of damage to aircraft panels. To address this, a modified numerical model is required to predict hailstone impact damage on curved aircraft panels more accurately. This paper introduces a fragmentation model for hailstone impacts on curved aircraft panels, using modified Hertzian contact mechanics model. By incorporating the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, the model successfully predicts contact pressures, deformation behavior, and fragmentation characteristics upon hailstone impact with aluminum alloy panels. It accounts for the influence of impact velocity, hailstone size, and material properties, providing insights into the damage potential of hailstones on critical aircraft components. The findings reveal that smaller hailstones exhibit greater fragmentation, producing a higher number of fragments, while larger hailstones generate higher contact pressures and plastic deformation energy, resulting in more severe damage. Additionally, the fragmentation radius and residual velocity of hailstones decrease exponentially with increasing size, further influencing the severity of impact. These results offer valuable insights into aircraft structural design, emphasizing the need to account for size-dependent effects when developing hail-resistant materials and configurations. Additionally, numerical simulations of the hailstone impact on AA2024 curved panels were conducted on ANSYS Explicit Dynamics ® for validating the analytical results.


    Access

    Download


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Modeling hailstone fragmentation upon impact with curved aircraft panels using a modified Hertzian contact mechanics framework


    Additional title:

    CEAS Aeronaut J




    Publication date :

    2025-05-25




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    Hailstone impact tests on aircraft structural components

    Kangas, P. | Engineering Index Backfile | 1950


    Hailstone impact simulator

    ALFARO-BOU, E. | AIAA | 1972


    Hailstone impact simulator.

    Alfaro-Bou, E. | NTRS | 1972


    Hailstone Response of Body Panels - Real and Simulated

    Niemeier,B.A. / Burley,C.E. / Reynolds Metals,US | Automotive engineering | 1978


    Hailstone Response of Body Panels - Real and Simulated

    Niemeier, Bernard A. / Burley, Carlton E. | SAE Technical Papers | 1978