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Numerical continuation analysis of a three-dimensional aircraft main landing gear mechanism

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Abstract

A method of investigating quasi-static landing gear mechanisms is presented and applied to a three-dimensional aircraft main landing gear mechanism model. The model has 19 static equilibrium equations and 20 equations describing the geometric constraints in the mechanism. In the spirit of bifurcation analysis, solutions to these 39 steady-state equations are found and tracked, or continued, numerically in parameters of interest. A design case study is performed on the landing gear actuator position to demonstrate the potential relevance of the method for industrial applications. The trade-off between maximal efficiency and peak actuator force reduction when positioning the actuator is investigated. It is shown that the problem formulation is very flexible and allows actuator force, length and efficiency information to be obtained from a single numerical continuation computation with minimal data post-processing. The study suggests that numerical continuation analysis has potential for investigating even more complex landing gear mechanisms, such as those with more than one sidestay.

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Notes

  1. For the main strut \(\mathcal{L}_{1}\) a global rotation Θ 1 is used to define the link. The corresponding local rotation θ 1 is a function of Θ 1.

  2. i.e. the gradient either side of the local maximum point remains quite shallow for a wide range of retraction angle values.

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Acknowledgements

The research of J.A.C. Knowles was supported at the University of Bristol by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council CASE award in collaboration with Airbus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Wheatley Campus, Wheatley, Oxford, OX33 1HX, UK

    J. A. C. Knowles

  2. Department of Mathematics, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    B. Krauskopf

  3. Faculty of Engineering, Queen’s Building, University Walk, Bristol, BS8 1TR, UK

    M. Lowenberg

Authors
  1. J. A. C. Knowles
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  2. B. Krauskopf
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  3. M. Lowenberg
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Correspondence to J. A. C. Knowles.

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Knowles, J.A.C., Krauskopf, B. & Lowenberg, M. Numerical continuation analysis of a three-dimensional aircraft main landing gear mechanism. Nonlinear Dyn 71, 331–352 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-012-0664-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-012-0664-z

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