Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Impacts on Heat-Strengthened Glass

Abstract

Increasing demand for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the logistics and rescue fields, which are closely related to urban environments, has been accompanied by an increase in impact risk to people and property. However, safety regulations for small UAVs in urban areas have not yet been well established, and there are very few studies investigating the collisions between UAVs and building structures that could occur in an urban area. In this study, experimental and numerical investigations are conducted to evaluate the damage resulting from a UAV collision with heat-strengthened glass, a widely used building exterior cladding. Commercially available UAVs were impacted into a series of glass panels at various speeds and angles. The collision processes were recorded with a high-speed camera, and the impact forces of the UAVs were measured using dynamic force sensors. A numerical model of the UAV was then developed to simulate the impacts using the finite element method and verified by comparison with the experimental results. The collision tests performed in this study are expected to provide primary data for establishing UAV safety regulations, and the verified numerical model can be applied to evaluate various collision scenarios for the different UAVs.