Experimental studies of damage to aircraft skin under the influence of raindrops

Minggong Sha, Ying Sun, Li Yulong, Vladimir I. Goncharenko, Vladimir S. Oleshko, Anatoly V. Ryapukhin and Victor M. Yurov

Abstract

Airplanes in flight collide with raindrops, and the leading edges of the airframe can be damaged when colliding with raindrops. A single waterjet testing platform was created to study rain erosion damage. Carbon fiber samples with three types of skins were studied and the mechanical properties were measured using a nanoindentation instrument. The research results show that the impact force on the sample increases with the continuous increase in the impact speed of raindrops, which leads to an increase in the damage area. Sheathing with low surface roughness is more damaged than other sheathings due to its rougher surface, and the result proves that surface roughness has a more significant effect on rain erosion damage to sheathings compared to their hardness.

Key Words

coating; composite material; impact dynamics; rain erosion damage; single jet

Address

Minggong Sha: School of Civil Aviation, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China; Shaanxi Impact Dynamics and Engineering Application Laboratory, Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China; NPU Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, 215400 Suzhou, China Ying Sun: Moscow Aviation Institute, Volokolamskoe Highway 4, 125993 Moscow, Russia Li Yulong: School of Civil Aviation, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China; Shaanxi Impact Dynamics and Engineering Application Laboratory, Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China; NPU Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, 215400 Suzhou, China Vladimir I. Goncharenko, Vladimir S. Oleshko, Anatoly V. Ryapukhin: Moscow Aviation Institute, Volokolamskoe Highway 4, 125993 Moscow, Russia Victor M. Yurov: Karaganda Technical University, Nazarbaev Street 56, 100056 Karaganda, Kazakhstan

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