Development and validation of a set-up to measure the transferred multi-axial impact momentum of a bird strike on a booster vane

•Measurement of the multi-axial impact momentum during bird strike on a vane.•The movement of a well-chosen structure is proportional to the momentum.•Three rotational DOFs are measured with a refined optical measurement technique.•The transferred momentum and strains over time are predicted well by SPH. Reaction force has always been one of the main characterization parameters for impact events. Today, a set of force transducers are a common and valuable tool to measure reaction forces. But the force signals are often influenced by vibrations of the supporting structures. Many other attempts were already taken in the past to use other methods to measure force, such as ballistic pendulums, Hopkinson bars, etc., all having their advantages and disadvantages. In this work, a multi-axial force measurement tool is developed to serve in a test campaign of bird strike experiments on booster vanes. The idea is to give some well-chosen mass three rotational degrees of freedom and acquire the transferred rotational momentum from an optical measurement, which is a direct measure for the impact force. The tool is validated experimentally and numerically using a simplified steel vane.