Evaluation of numerical simulation methods and ice material models for intermediate-velocity hail impact simulation

Abstract

Hail impact on structures such as building envelopes and vehicles can cause huge economic loss every year. Numerical simulation of the hail impact process is crucial for the mitigation strategy development. However, very few research works are focused on the hail impact simulation with impact velocity that falls into the intermediate-velocity range (10 – 50 m/s), to which the static structure could be exposed during a hailstorm. This study is to investigate the effectiveness of three simulation methods (Lagrangian method, Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method (ALE) and Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics method (SPH)) and three built-in material models from LS-DYNA® (MAT10, MAT13 and MAT155) on modeling hail during an intermediate-velocity impact process. The performance of each combination of simulation method and material model is evaluated by comparing the contact force results with the documented experimental results. Statistical analysis was conducted to check the accuracy of the simulation model. It was shown that ALE method combined with MAT155 has the best performance on contact force profile prediction. The findings were further validated by case studies. Outcomes from this study provide insights on the effect of various failure material treatment methods of the solvers and the material models on the hail failure mode and their reflection on the contact force, which can assist the selection of simulation method and material model for hail modeling for an intermediate-velocity impact.