Experimental and FEM study of windshield subjected to high speed bird impact

Both experimental and finite element model (FEM) results are presented for the dynamic strength behavior of windshield subjected to bird impact. The experimental data taken from a series of high speed photographs are compared with the numerical results predicted by using FEM in which the windshield was modeled entirely with solid elements and the bird body was approximately simulated by an elastic-plastic material with failure element behavior. Effective plastic strain and element pressure were adopted as the failure criteria and once the pressure or the effective plastic strain of an element reached the critical value, the element would lose the tensile resistance capability completely. The deflection and stress distribution in the windshield were obtained. It is shown that the result from the finite element analysis agrees with those from the full-scale bird impact test. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10272011)