Finite Element Analysis of Drone Impact on a Rotating Aircraft Engine Fan: Sensitivity to Blade Material and Impact Velocity

An explicit finite element study examined the sensitivity of a rotating aircraft-engine fan to blade material and drone impact velocity. A complete 20-blade rotor and a deformable, equivalent-material quadcopter were modelled in ANSYS/LS-DYNA. Ti-6Al-4V, Ti-6242 and AA2024-T3 blades were assessed at 30, 60 and 100 m/s with an initial fan angular velocity of 283 rad/s. Nine frictional simulations and one Ti-6Al-4V frictionless case at 100 m/s were evaluated using stress, equivalent plastic strain, directional displacement, erosion and energy histories. Ti-6Al-4V produced the lowest maximum blade plastic strain at each velocity; AA2024-T3 values were 11.6–26.9 times greater despite lower equivalent stress. No fan elements were deleted, whereas drone deletion occurred in every case. The maximum-history reduction in surviving-drone kinetic energy increased with velocity, but the highest velocity did not produce the largest plastic strain in every material. Including friction increased maximum plastic strain by a factor of 6.46 in the sensitivity case. The results highlight multi-blade chronology and complementary response measures within the adopted model; local impact convergence and configuration-specific experimental validation were not established.