EVALUATION OF THE PENETRATION RESISTANCE OF AIRCRAFT REVETMENTS FILLED WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF SAND USING THE COUPLED EULERIAN–LAGRANGIAN METHOD

Abstract

In aircraft revetments, the use of locally available granular materials for filling can provide clear economic and technical benefits, especially in areas with difficult transportation conditions, such as offshore islands. Sand types such as coarse sand, fine sand, and coral sand are commonly used; however, the penetration resistance of these materials has not been systematically evaluated under the same conditions. Therefore, numerical simulation methods are needed to support analysis, reduce experimental workload, and expand the investigation of impact scenarios. This study presents numerical simulation results for the penetration of a projectile into aircraft revetments filled with coarse sand, fine sand, and coral sand under high-velocity impact, based on comparison with experimental results. The Coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian (CEL) method is used as the main approach; meanwhile, the Lagrangian method and the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method are used for reference and comparison. The results show that the CEL method gives errors of 5.3% to 24.6% compared with the experiments, which are significantly lower than those of the SPH method, which range from 47.0% to 57.7%. The Lagrangian method is limited in simulating the penetration process due to mesh distortion under large-deformation conditions. In addition, the simulation results correctly reflect the experimental trend in the penetration resistance of the sand types, in descending order: coarse sand, coral sand, and fine sand. These results provide a basis for selecting filling materials and numerical methods in the design of aircraft revetments.