Bird Strike-Induced Damage in Bio-Inspired Sinusoidal Corrugated Helicoidal Laminates

Corrugated composite plates are increasingly employed in defense, aerospace, and naval applications, where they are vulnerable to high-speed soft-body impacts such as bird strikes. Despite extensive research on flat laminates, little attention has been given to sinusoidal corrugated helicoidal laminates under such loading conditions. This study investigates the damage response of sinusoidal corrugated bio-inspired helicoidal laminated composite plates subjected to a bird strike at 200 m∕s. The bird is modeled using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics approach, while the plate is represented via the finite element method in ABAQUS/Explicit, with damage captured using the Hashin failure criterion. Results reveal that boundary conditions significantly influence damage initiation, propagation, and failure modes, with cross-ply laminates exhibiting minimum penetration damage but still suffering severe material loss. In contrast, Fibonacci and linear helicoidal schemes demonstrate enhanced energy dissipation and distributed damage, highlighting their superior damage tolerance. The findings establish benchmark insights for the design of bio-inspired corrugated laminates in aerospace and defense applications, offering a pathway toward lightweight, impact-resistant structural solutions.