An experimental and numerical study on structural dynamic stress of a landing gear

This paper concerns the main landing gear of certain light aircraft, and the dynamic stress on the main landing gear during the landing process is analyzed. A complete dynamic drop test is developed for the landing gear of light aircraft on the main landing gear, and the changes of dynamic strain exerted on the strut in the process of drop are measured. Simultaneously, the simulation software LMS Virtual.Lab Motion is used to build the rigid-flexible coupling dynamic model and simulate the process of drop and the results of the dynamic stress is obtained by means of computer simulation. Afterwards, the results of the dynamic stress between simulation and test are contrasted, and the sources of data error are analyzed. To sum up, the study shows that the dynamic stress in the flexible part of landing gear possesses a high accuracy through combining the analysis results of simulation and test, which meets the safety design criteria of the landing gear. Moreover, the method used to build the rigid-flexible coupling model is an available and reliable way for the simulation of drop test, which can provide a deep basis for future research.