Case Study: HCL Technologies achieves lightweight, bird-strike–certified vertical stabilizer and reduced physical testing with Dassault Systèmes' Abaqus

HCL Technologies - Customer Case Study

HCL Technologies needed a lighter-weight vertical stabilizer for a commercial aircraft tail assembly that would meet FAA and EASA bird‑strike certification while replacing traditional aluminum with composites. To tackle the highly dynamic, nonlinear impact problem, HCL used Dassault Systemes’ Abaqus (SIMULIA) for detailed finite element simulation during design development.

Using Dassault Systemes’ Abaqus, HCL simulated multiple composite and hybrid layups and compared Lagrangian and Coupled Eulerian‑Lagrangian (CEL) approaches, finding CEL gave more realistic results with less run time. Simulations identified a successful hybrid solution (a 20‑ply composite with a 0.9 mm aluminum outer layer) that limited underlying composite damage and allowed HCL to dramatically reduce costly, time‑intensive physical testing and accelerate design iteration (physical certification testing is pending).

HCL Technologies

Anwar Ibrahim

Project Manager