Master's thesis of Engineering: Water impact investigations for aircraft ditching analysis

This thesis investigates the SPH capability available in the commercial Finite Element (FE) code LS-DYNA®, for water impact problems. Experiments have been conducted on rigid wedges impacting water, which were then simulated with the SPH method. Although certain limitations were experienced with the experimental results, a positive correlation was observed with the numerical technique, thus establishing SPH as a promising method for crashworthiness design. The direction of further evaluation of the SPH technique has been identified, with the ultimate aim of developing a simulation methodology for the design and advancement of crashworthy concepts for aerospace vehicles.