| Abstract: | Flying was inspired by birds. But ironically bird strikes are a menace. Therefore, aero-engines have to be designed to survive these strikes. The design of the bullet nose of an aero-engine during a bird strike is presented in this paper. A Finite Element Analysis (FEA) model was developed for this purpose. It was then fine-tuned through experiments on bullet noses built using Laser-Engineered Net-Shaping (LENS). Through this approach, several design alternatives could be evaluated virtually and only a few physical experiments were required for validation. The outcome is not only a rapid and safe bullet nose design but also a realistic FEA model. |
