THREE DIMENSIONAL NONLINEAR DYNAMIC FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS FOR THE RESPONSE OF A THICK LAMINATED SHELL TO IMPACT LOADS.

Abstract

The response of the T-38 aircraft student windshield structural assembly to bird impact loading is simulated using the MAGNA (Materially and Geometrically Nonlinear Analysis) three-dimensional nonlinear finite element analysis system. User subroutines are used to couple the mathematical definition of the bird impact pressures to the computed response of the aircraft windshield assembly. These pressures are applied to the faces of finite elements lying within the bird impact footprint on the surface of the windshield. The analysis problem is characterized by severe material and geometric nonlinearities as well as significant fluid/solid interaction (load/response coupling). All analyses were conducted on a 2 million word core Cray-1/S computer.