Abstract
Aircraft structures should endure tyre debris impacts. Therefore, numerical simulations which are able to predict such phenomena are highly appreciated for the aircraft structures design. However, these simulations had to be checked by means of experimental data. In this paper, a new experimental set-up, with well-known boundary conditions, has been developed for numerical model validation. This new set-up allows for impacts with angles ranging from 20 degrees to 90 degrees by a step of 5 degrees. In this study, rubber balls, which are 42 mm in diameter, are launched against 500 x 500 mm2 aluminium alloy plates. The impact velocities are in the range of 130 m/s.