Helicopter Engine Inlet Stress Analysis

Colley Aerospace consulted in the design, development, and airworthiness certification of a helicopter engine inlet. We performed the stress analysis and the bird strike analysis on the fiber-reinforced composite and metallic structures that comprise the assembly.

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and classical hand analysis techniques were used to determine the airworthiness of the composite and metallic structures and all bolted joint interfaces. Detailed bird strike analyses were conducted on the engine inlet using Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) techniques with generalized coupling and Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) methods.

The bird strike analysis was used to determine the ability of the engine inlet structure to withstand a bird strike in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulations. We generated detailed reports for all of these assessments to support the FAA airworthiness certification process.