×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Bird Strike Testing

Bird Strike Testing

Bird Strike Testing

(OP)
I am looking for a quality testing house that performs bird strike testing.  Can anyone provide some contacts?

RE: Bird Strike Testing

Learjet has a facility in Wichita KS, but I don't know if they do outside work. You could try them.

RE: Bird Strike Testing

We have dealt with the folks at University of Dayton Research Institute (experimental and applied mechanics div)for some aspects of our own bird tests. You might want to try them.

RE: Bird Strike Testing

Kind of off topic but did you see that episode of Myth Busters on the Discovery Channel where they used an air cannon to fire frozen and thawed chickens at an aircraft windscreen.  The idea was to either prove or disprove that story about the aircraft engineers who mistakenly fired frozen chickens at an aircraft windscreen.  The guys on the show claimed to have “busted” the myth by demonstrating that regardless of frozen or thawed, the energy at impact of the bird on the windscreen was the same and the same damage resulted either way.

SCET - Techmaximus

RE: Bird Strike Testing

Check with Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.  

RE: Bird Strike Testing

(OP)
Thanks, all, for your help.  I'll make some calls and see what's out there.

RE: Bird Strike Testing

I didn't see the show but it seems like a soft birdie would absorb more of the impact, just like crush zones on a car. The kinetic energy would be the same (same mass and velocity) but the rate of change of momentum (=impulse? I forgot) would be less. Then again, maybe the difference is not enough to affect the outcome of the test, or the windshield is strong enough to withstand either situation.

RE: Bird Strike Testing




techmaximus/jlwoodward

the myth buster vs the frozen chicken has its own thread.

check my 01-25-05 post on the same suject.

RE: Bird Strike Testing



Like a lot of qualification testing, aircraft bird shot testing is arbitrary.

The bird is to weigh 4 pounds and the velocity at impact is the max speed the airplane can fly below 14,000 ft.

So all this assumes so long as the bird's weight does not exceed 4 pounds and is not flying above 14,000 ft, the crew is safe.

Nor does the criteria take into account the direction the bird might be flying at impact.

Let's assume the airplane was qualified to 300 knots.  If the bird is flying towards the airplane at 20 knots, the impact velocity is 320 knots.  The energy at impact is proportional to the square of the velocity, so the energy at impact would be about 14% higher than the test impact energy level.

RE: Bird Strike Testing

I saw the show and there was no difference in a frozen or thawed bird.  They both did the same amount of damage.

When fired into a flat plate, again there was very little if any difference in the amount of impact.

RE: Bird Strike Testing

When fired into a flat plate, again there was very little if any difference in the amount of impact damage.

Both birds shattered into a zillion pieces.

RE: Bird Strike Testing


Aircraft windshields are not flat panels perpendicular to the airstream.  

When the bird impacts the windshield, only part of the energy needs to be absorbed by the windscreen.  Most of the energy gets carried off with the remains that are deflected off to the side or over the top.  That is why it is important for the bird to be freshly killed and still relatively soft.

To qualify a windshield, it takes several shots at various points considered most vulnerable.  Aircraft centerline shots can be the most difficult to pass.

And if you are imagining a bunch of feathers, blood and guts,it does not work that way.  At the impact area, it looks like it was painted with a coarse gray paint. The rest is pulversized and not identifiable.

RE: Bird Strike Testing

Yes, Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX has a section within their Engineering Dynamics Dept. that conducts ASTM Bird Strike and Hail Stone Impact Testing on a variety of targets over a wide range of impact velocities.  Try "Southwest Research Institute" on Google then look for Division 18, Mechanical & Materials Engineering Division for points of contact.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources