Abstract The 2xxx series aluminum alloys are preferred as a material for aircraft leading edges because they have high failure strain compared with other aluminum alloys. This parametric study on 2xxx series aluminum alloy material parameters was carried out to identify the critical parameters that influence the energy absorption and load transferability during bird strikes. The soft-body impact simulation on an aluminum alloy leading edge was validated with an experiment test. Using commercially available finite-element software, a parametric study has explored the bird impact response of aluminum leading edges with different material parameters. The results showed that static yield limit, elastic modulus, strain-hardening modulus, and strain-hardening exponent are the most influencing material parameters to be considered to improve the crashworthiness performance of the aluminum alloy. Analysis of variance revealed that the most significant material parameters for the performance improvement of the wing leading edge against bird impact are the elastic modulus and static yield limit. After that, considering this material parameters as design variables, a gray relational analysis was carried out to simultaneously reduce reaction force at the spar region and wing center tip deformation. The material parameter values were selected from the optimization study, and a comparison analysis was carried out to study the improvement of the optimized material properties. The optimized aluminum alloy showed up to 25% improvement in energy-absorbing characteristics than a conventional aluminum alloy (AA 2024-T3). Fracture analysis was carried out to find the optimized aluminum alloy’s damage initiation and evolution parameters.
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