New Leading-Edge Reinforcement Design of Aircraft Wing to Withstand Bird Collision

Abstract

Bird strikes are a key threat to aircraft wing leading edges. This investigation evaluates a honeycomb block reinforcement concept to improve bird strike resistance while maintaining structural efficiency. A validated simulation was developed using an explicit dynamic finite element approach, in which the bird was modeled as a soft body using smoothed particle hydrodynamics, and the wing leading edge was represented with a honeycomb block reinforcement concept. A design of experiments based on McKay Latin hypercube sampling was applied to comprehensively examine the effects of the geometric parameters on the maximum von Mises stress and maximum deformation. Response surface regression models were then constructed to approximate the impact responses and analyze the model correctness. These models were subsequently integrated into a constrained optimization methodology using sequential quadratic programming and population-based integrated learning to minimize deformation while limiting stress below the material yield threshold. The optimized honeycomb and skin configuration demonstrated a noticeable optimization of the maximum deformation within the yield stress limit compared with the baseline design. The results confirm that the proposed honeycomb block reinforcement concept, combined with a regression-based optimization strategy, constitutes a practical, computationally effective approach to improving bird strike resistance and provides a feasible design option for future impact-resistant wing leading-edge designs.