Analysis of progressive dynamic damage caused by large hailstone ingestion into modern high bypass turbofan engine

Foreign Object Ingestion is one of the major concerns for the aviation industry. The impact caused by an ingested object can immediately initiate damage within the propulsion system and compromise its functionality. In addition to structural damage, the stability of the engine can also be adversely affected as the compressor is driven to stall due to massive debris ingestion. Among many potential projectiles, hailstone is a candidate that can interact with the engine at any altitude. Ice possesses highly non-linear material properties, with these properties being extremely sensitive to many environmental attributes, including temperature, pressure, and accretion rate. Such complexities make it challenging to numerically predict the ice-structure interaction. In this study, the non-linear behavior of ice was numerically simulated using a finite element framework and compared against physical experiments. The validated methodology was then utilized to investigate, damage initiation, full dynamic response, and failure evolution in a propulsion system subject to ice ingestion.