LANDING GEAR LOADS by Martin Hollmann The 14 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR), Part 23 states that the limit inertia load factor for the design of aircraft landing gears must be determined by a drop test or by some rational means. Since a drop test is not possible during the design phase we must look to a rational means to design the landing gears. This analysis is that means. The main landing gears on an aircraft may be viewed by looking at the aircraft from the front as shown in figure 1. The shock absorption of the landing shock occurs just as the tires touch the runway and continues as the tire and landing gear leg deflect and absorb the energy of the vertical sink velocity, Vs, of the landing aircraft. A simplified view of the two conditions of landing are shown in figure 2. Each condition in figure 2 is the same view as figure 1 but the landing gear and tires have been represented by a single spring with a spring constant of K in Ib/inch or in Ib/feet. To convert simply multiply Ib/in. by 12 to get lb/ft. According to Paragraph 23.473 (d) of Part 23, the velocity Vs depends on the wing loading Wt/S for the aircraft at landing weight as shown in equation |. Vs = 4.4(WvS)'* a) Where, Vs is in feet per second Wt is the landing weight of the aircraft in pounds $ is the wing area in square feet For aircraft weighing less than 12,600 Ibs, Part 23 also states that when WUS is equal to or larger than 26.9 psf, Vs needs to be no larger than 10 fps. If Wt/S is equal to or smaller than 6.4 psf, Vs is equal to and cannot be smaller than 7 fps. Now if we look at condition | in figure 2, when the wheels are just beginning to touch the runway at time = 0, the kinetic energy is K.E. = Wt Vs?/(2 g) Q) Where, g is the acceleration of one gravity equal to 32.2 feet/second” Paragraph 23.473 (b)(1), Part 23 allows the landing weight, Wt, to equal 0.95 x gross weight, W. 1Figure 1. A View Aft of the Aircraft showing the Landing Gear Dimensions and Forces. { i an a O © Figure 2. Two Conditions For the Landing Gear Stroke. Same as Figure | except Landing Gears are shown by a Spring. >DEFLECTION, IN: Figure 3. Testing the Tire Deflection under a Load of up to 6,500 lbs. Table |. The Load/Deflection of a 6.00 x 6 Tire with 6 plies and a 5.00 x 5 Tire with 6 plies for Various Tire Pressures. 6.00 x 6 Tire 5.00 x 5 Tire | AZ SV aN j - A | | | | =During the landing shock, we are allowed to account for an amount of lift from the wings since the aircraft is at a speed just below stall and high angle of attack (nose up). The lift coefficient for the stalled wing is usually taken to be from 0.4 to 0.5. If we express the wing lift as a lift factor, P equal to the wing lift divided by the aircraft landing weight, Wt, then the lift during landing is, Lift = Wt (1 — P) G) For a wing lift coefficient of 0.4 to 0.5, it can be shown that P = 0.667 and this value is used in calculating the landing loads. The potential energy, P.E., during the landing gear stroke, X, is, P.E. = Wt(1—P)X (4) At the bottom of the landing gear stroke the vertical velocity, Vs = 0 and K.E. = 0 and the force that the tires and landing gear leg exert upward on the aircraft is, F=XK (5) For a linear spring constant K, the energy that has been absorbed by the landing gear is, E= [Fdx =Kk dx =K X72 (6) This equation is accurate since the tire, as seen in figure 3, and the spring gear leg has a linear spring constant. If an oleo strut is used for the landing gear leg, the reaction force, R, of the landing gear is constant such that, E=0.9R kix=09RX (7) Now from the conservation of energy, the energy of condition 1 is set equal to the energy at condition 2 in figure 2. K.E. + P.E.=E (8) Substituting equations 2, 4 and 6 into 8 we have, 4K X?/2— Wt(1-P) X — Wt Vs"/(2 g) =0 (9) From which, X= {We (1-P) + [(We (1-P)) + K Wt Vs*/g]!?)/K (10) To solve for X, the only unknown in equation 10 is the spring constant K for the landing gear. K is made up of two spring constants. One is the deflection of the tire under load and the other is the deflection of the gear leg or strut. ADI performed tests on a 6.00 x 6 tire with different tire pressures as shown in figure 3 with the results plotted in table 1. For a tire pressure of 55 psi a maximum tire deflection of 3.6 inches is realized when the tire is loaded to 6,500 Ibs. The tire spring constant, kjj¢ is 6,500/3.6 = 1,805 Ib/in = 21,660 lb/ft. From the cantilevered beam equation, (see reference 3) the spring constant of the gear leg in figure 2 can be calculated as follows. The deflection of the gear leg under load R is, y=Rz/(3ED al For the gear leg section of figure 1, the section moment of inertia, T=) w/l2= 1 6/12 = 0.5 in. and for steel, the modulus of elasticity, E=29x10° psi z= 25 inches and let R = | Ib, then from eq. 11, y=1x 2553 29 x 10° x 0.5) = 0.00108 in. Keg = I/y = 928 Ib/in. = 11,136 Ib/ft. Since the tire and gear leg are in series and there are two such systems, the system spring constant for both the tire and gear leg is, K=2 [kuire X Kieg/(Ktire + kicg)] (12) Substituting into equation 12 gives, K = 2 [21,660 x 11,136/(21,660 + 11,136)] = 14,710 lb/ft, Part 23 allows the landing weight, Wt to equal 0.95 x gross weight. For a gross weight of 3,800 Ibs the landing weight is 3,610 Ibs. The aircraft has a 3wing area of 140 sq.ft. so that W/S = 25.78 lb/sq.ft. Then from equation |, Vs =9.91 fps. Substituting into equation 10, gives a gear deflection of, X = {3610x0.333 + [(3610x0.333)+14,710x3610x9.9°/32.2]'7}/14,710 X = 0.95 fi. or 11.4 in. Now adding the 1 g load of the aircraft less the wing lift to eq. 5 and dividing by the landing weight of the aircraft, we can determine the limit ground load factor, ng, which is acting up on the landing gear. ng = (XK + Wt (1-P)/Wt (13) Substituting into equation 13, ng for the example aircraft is, ng = [0.95 x 14,710 + 3610 x 0.333]/3610 = 4.20 gs I need to point out that if the aircraft has been built, it is easy to determine the landing gear stiffness, K, from weight and balance data and a simple wheel deflection test. Let us say that the load on each main wheel is Wm pounds. With the aircraft empty the weight on the main wheels is known. The distance of the fuselage above the ground is measured. With a hoist connected to the airframe, the aircraft is lift so that the wheels just touch the ground and the new distance of the height of the fuselage off the ground is measured. The difference between the readings is u feet. K is now simply, K=2 Wm/u (14) After going through the above calculations, we realize that for the calculations of many iterations in which we try to optimize lets say the tire pressure or landing gear design, it would be best to use a computer program. Such a program is written in BASIC as shown in the next pages. The relation between the gear load, ng, and the aircraft load, n, with P=0.667 is shown in Figure 4.Figure 4. The aircraft load factor n is acting on the people and equipment inside the aircraft and ng/2 is acting on each landing gear leg as shown above. REFERENCES: 1. 14 CFR, Part 23, “Airworthiness Standards: Normal, Utility, Acrobatic, and Commuter Category Airplanes.” U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. 1992. 2. Ladislao Pazmany, “Landing Gear Design for Light Aircraft, Vol. 1,” Pazmany Aircraft Corp., Box 80051, San Diego, CA 92138. 1986. 3. Raymond Roark, “Formulas for Stress and Strain,” McGraw-Hill Book Co. 1965. LANDING GEAR LOADS Program | in QBASIC by M. Hollmann by M. Hollmann"96 CLS 98 PRINT "" 100 PRINT " QUTPUT DATA" 102 "GRO "LANDING WETGHT -" 105 110 "WING AREA ="; S 120 "Ke"; x 125 "SINK SPEED, fps="; V 145 "LLET FACTOR ="; P 150 PRINT "LANDING SHOCK DISTANCE, ft. 155 PRINT "AIRCRAPT LOAD FACTOR = 160 PRINT “LANDING GEAR LOAD FACTOR 165 PRINT "TIRE DEFLECTION, in. 170 PRINT "LEG DEFLECTION, in. LANDING GEAR LOADS Program 2 in QBASIC. This program has been used extensively in the industry and gives close agreement to the above program which is easier to use since actual spring constants are used. 5 CLS 10 15 20 "LANDING GEAR LOAD PROGRAM" "WING AREA, SQ. s "LANDING WEIGHT, LBS"; W 22.V > 4.4 * (H/ S) * 225 24 32.2 25 = .667 26 IF V > 10 THEN V ~ 10 28 Vv <7 TREN V = 7 30 INPUT "TIRE DIA¥ 35 INPUT "WHEEL HUB 40 INPUT "GEAR LEG IS SPRING, Y/N"; SPRINGS 45 INPUT "GEAR LEG IS AN OLRO, Y/N"; OLZO$ 50 SPRINGSS = LEETS{SPRINGS, 1} $2 OLEO$ = LEFTS${OLEOS, 1) 55 IF SPRINGS = "Y" THEN ESTRUT = 60 IF OLEO$ = "Y" TEEN ESTRUT = .75 65 IF SPRINGS <> "¥" AND OLEO$ <> "Y" TEEN 40 70 ETIRE = .3 75 STIRE = (OD - 1D) / 6 80 INPUT "STRUT STROKE FROM FULLY EXTENDED TO FULLY COMPRESSED, IN"; SSTRUT 9ON= WeV 42 / (2 * 8) * (ETIRE * STIRE + ESTRUT * 95 REM- - - -- == = 100 PRINT OULPUT DATA" 105 PRINT "LANDING WEICHT ="; % 110 PRINT "WING AREA 120 PRINT 125 PRINT 130 PRINT 135 TF SPRINGS = "Y" THEN PRINT "SPRING GEAR LEG" 140 TF OLROS = “Y" THEN PRINT “OLEO GEAR LEG" 145 PRINT "LIFT FACTOR ="; L 150 PRINT "SINK SPEED, FPS ="; V 155 PRINT "AIRCRAFT LOAD FACTOR 160 PRINT "LANDING GEAR LOAD FACTOR 1) TN."7 OD METER, IN."; ID