An experimental and numerical analysis of the response of laminated composite plates under high-velocity impact loads of soft\r\nbody gelatine projectiles (artificial birds) is presented. The plates are exposed to tensile and compressive preloads before impact in\r\norder to cover realistic loading conditions of representative aeronautic structures under foreign object impact. The modelling\r\nmethodology for the composite material, delamination interfaces, impact projectile, and preload using the commercial finite\r\nelement code Abaqus are presented in detail. Finally, the influence of prestress and of different delamination modelling approaches\r\non the impact response is discussed and a comparison to experimental test data is given. Tensile and compressive preloading was\r\nfound to have an influence on the damage pattern. Although this general behaviour could be predicted well by the simulations,\r\nfurther numerical challenges for improved bird strike simulation accuracy are highlighted.
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