Novel implementation of fluid-solid interaction analysis in air breathing propulsion systems

A bird strike event is one of the largest threats to the safety of aircraft, yet, the studies conducted to ensure the integrity of aircraft systems have so far been based mainly on empirical data, rather than a numerical analysis. From a wide spectrum of bird strike scenarios, bird ingestion into an aircraft's propulsion system is the most hazardous. To ensure passenger safety, engine manufacturers are required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to design engines that can sustain thrust for at least 20 minutes in the event of a catastrophic soft body ingestion incident [1]. To satisfy these regulations, manufactures need to perform a variety of certification tests, but such tests can drastically increase cost, time, and efforts required to develop a final product. To avoid such challenges, a numerical analysis becomes an essential tool. In order to analyze the dynamic damage response of a propulsion system subjected to bird ingestion, Fluid-Solid Interaction (FSI) must be considered. FSI is a very important phenomenon for most of the engineering applications which requires coupling two complicated disciplines. Previously, a preliminary dynamic damage assessment had been performed on the front fan section of a propulsion system in the event of a soft body impact. In this study, a more precise propulsion system is developed and implemented to predict the dynamic damage evolution of the propulsion system which is subject to a soft body impact.