Unmanned aerial vehicle strike on a flat plate: Tests and numerical simulations

The incursion of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into airports often occurs due to the popularity of drones, which may lead to a threat to aircraft flight safety. Therefore, estimating the dynamic impact load caused by drone strikes is essential. This paper proposes a test method with high precision and low cost involving launching of a UAV to impact a flat plate specimen by using an air gun. The test results of UAVs impacting flat plates at different impact velocities, such as the UAV damage deformation captured by a high-speed camera and strain vs time dynamic response curves of plates, were obtained and analysed. At the same time, a corresponding numerical simulation was carried out by using the explicit finite element software LS-DYNA. The predicted damage to the UAV and strain on the flat plate during the strike process were compared with the test results. The overall trend of the simulation results is in good agreement with the test results, at least for the first three milliseconds of the event. This shows that the numerical simulation model established in this paper is reasonable. The UAV numerical method established in the present paper can be used to carry out numerical simulations and evaluations of the collision safety of UAVs against large aircraft and high-value ground targets. The results show that the local deformation of the impacted target is uneven due to the distribution of concentrated mass components such as motors, battery, and camera. As the impact velocity of the UAV increases, all parts of the UAV are seriously damaged and basically in a fragmented state, and the battery is greatly deformed. The interaction between the UAV and the flat plate specimen is approximately 2.7 ms, and the UAV numerical simulation model established in this paper can well simulate the real UAV impact process.