Simulation Study of a Composite Landig Gear of Ultralight and Very Light Aircraft

Abstract

There is a need to design new, lighter aircraft structures, which has a direct impact on the safety and costs of aircraft maintenance. One of basic parts of an aircraft is ites landing gear, whose main functions are to enable taxiing, safe landing, take-off, and to assist the remainder of ground operations. Landing gear failures are usually related to metallurgy, processing, environment, design, and causes of overload. These are conditions that can be prevented using modern methods to calculate the strength of such a landing gear in various conditions. The paper presents stages of a simulation study of the fixed three-wheeled spring landing gear for an ultralight aircraft. Analysis of forces acting on the landing gear during drop test and their implementation by numerical computer methods allowed for the creation of a model in the CAD (Computer-Aided Design) tool and its FEA (Finite Element Analysis). These results were compared between a modeled classic spring landing gear and the one made of composite materials. The further goal of the research will be to build a drop test stand for a small landing gear used in airplanes and drones. This method has a significant impact on simplifying the design of the landing gear, its modeling, and optimization.