Analysis of Emergency Landing Load of Civil Aircraft

with Single Main Landing Gear Extended Landing

Yang Wang1*
1
Shanghai Aircraft Design & Research Institute, No.5188 Jinke Road Pudong District, Shanghai, China
* wangyang3@comac.cc

Keywords: CIVIL AIRCRAFT, IMPACT; CRASHWORTHINESS, WHEEL UP LANDING, LOAD

ANALYSIS

Abstract
Aircraft Wheels Up Landing (WUL) is an emergency event in which the aircraft controlled landing on a paved runway
without one or more landing gear legs extended. Related airworthiness regulations state the aircraft must withstand loads
derived without sustaining a structural component failure that is likely to cause the spillage of enough fuel to constitute a fire
hazard. The one main landing gear (MLG) extended landing condition is critical for aircraft with fuselage mounted engines,
since the wing lower surface can be in direct contact with the runway during the impact and sliding phase. The methods
consider a fully coupled solution of the nonlinear wing tip model and the linear aircraft structure. The wing loads from
simulations are presented.

1 Introduction
Wheels Up Landing (WUL) is a controlled Landing of an
aircraft on a paved runway with one or more Landing gear
struts down. Corresponding Airworthiness clause
CAR25.721(b)[1], the airplane must be designed to avoid any
rupture leading to the spillage of enough fuel to constitute a
fire hazard as a result of a wheels-up landing on a paved
runway, under the following minor crash landing conditions:
(1) Impact at 5 feet-per-second vertical velocity, with the
airplane under control, at Maximum Design Landing
Weight— (i) With the landing gear fully retracted; and (ii)
With any one or more landing gear legs not extended. (2)
Sliding on the ground, with— (i) The landing gear fully
retracted and with up to a 20° yaw angle; and (ii) Any one or
more landing gear legs not extended and with 0° yaw angle.
Landing with only a single landing gear extended is folded up
under the condition of wheel up landing. For the tail-lift
aircraft, one wing tip will hit the ground and taxi, once the
outer wing where is distributed of the fuel tank couldn’t bear
the load and damage, will lead to catastrophic accidents.
Therefore, the analysis of impact loads in civil aircraft with
one main landing gear extended landing is an indispensable
part of the compliance verification of CCAR25.721(b) for
civil aircraft.
Emergency landing analysis is a geometrical and material
nonlinear process. At the same time, the finite element
modeling of the analysis is difficult. If the full beam element
model is used for calculation, the contact stiffness, plastic
deformation and collapse damage of the structure during
impact cannot be considered. If the full shell element model
is used, the modeling is difficult and the calculation workload
is large.
In 2001, Freund D et al[2] built the multi-body model of
emergency landing by commercial software DADS. The
flexible aircraft model was established by Nastran, the impact
force was simulated by contact element, the cushion force of
landing gear and tire force was simulated by landing gear
model, and the stiffness of pillar was also taken into account,
finally the contact force was obtained. Considering the
flexibility of aircraft, the model is more real and reliable.
However, the beam model cannot simulate the geometrical
deformation of aircraft, and the contact stiffness cannot be
simulated by linear analysis. 2007 ˈBenitez L H et al[3]
calculate the full retracting condition of the wheel by PAM
Crash software, the nonlinear stiffness was used to simulate
the aircraft impact frame, the beam element model was used
to read the load at each station of the fuselage by monitoring
points. Part of landing gear retracting state is simulated by
Adams software. This method can reasonably and accurately
simulate the deformation of aircraft contact frame segment,
and the calculation results can be read directly from the
model. But the stiffness of frame segment is difficult to
calculate and the model is too complicated.
Domestic analysis of emergency landing mainly focuses on
the crash test of fuselage section[4]and numerical simulation
analysis[4]-[12]and the influence of the structure below the
cabin floor on the airframe's fallibility[13]-[17]. Zhichun
Yang and Linjuan Yan studied the human impact response
during an aircraft emergency landing [18].Literature [19] and
[20] optimized the design scheme of hanger emergency
disconnection for civil aircraft emergency landing. At present,
there is no relevant literature on load analysis of the whole
aircraft in China.
In this paper, the rigid body model is used to calculate the
initial conditions of one MLG extended landing, the ground
impact force and friction force are calculated by the mixed
model, and the wing load data of one MLG extended landing
is obtained by the whole aircraft load analysis.
2 Analysis process of one MLG extended
landing load
The analysis of aircraft one MLG extended landing load can
be divided into three stages. The first stage is the motion

Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSIDADE DE SAO PAULO. Downloaded on January 13,2023 at 23:37:52 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
analysis, the aircraft from the initial balance state to the
landing gear as the fulcrum of rotation, to obtain the wingtip
touching speed. The second stage is impact failure analysis,
which calculates the impact process between the aircraft wing
and the ground, and obtains the time history data of vertical
impact force and horizontal friction in the collision process.
The third stage is full aircraft load analysis. The data of
vertical impact force and horizontal friction force are added
to the full aircraft load model as excitation for transient
analysis, and the wing load data are obtained. The workflow
is shown in Figure 1.
with failure definition, and the element will be deleted
automatically once the failure strain is reached. The airframe,
wing, flat tail, vertical tail and small wing are simplified as
elastic beams located on the rigid axis of each component,
and several beam elements are used to simulate the structure.
The mass of the whole machine is discretized into a number
of concentrated masses, which are loaded on the
corresponding joints of the beam element. The beam element
model has been modified according to the results of ground
resonance test (GVT) to reflect the dynamic characteristics of
aircraft structure more truly.

Fig. 1 Loads analysis procedures in one MLG extended

landing
3 Finite Element Model
In this paper, three sets of finite element models are Fig. 3 Aircraft crash model
established, including the single wheel landing motion model,
the detail model of the touchdown position and the full 3.3 Whole aircraft load model
aircraft load model. As shown in Figure 4, the load model of the whole aircraft is
established by Patran software, and the body structure is
3.1 Single wheel landing motion model simplified to beam-element structure. The modelling
The single-wheel landing motion model was established by principle is consistent with the beam-element model in the
using Abaqus software. The body was simplified into detail model of touchdown position in Section 2.2
interconnected rigid beam elements, and the mass of the
whole machine was discretized into a number of concentrated
masses, which were loaded on the corresponding nodes of the
beam element according to the state of the centre of gravity,
as shown in Figure 2.

Fig.4 Aircraft "Stick" Model

Fig. 2 Aircraft rigid model
3.2 Detailed model of ground touching position
The detailed model of touchdown position was established by
using Abaqus software, as shown in Figure 3.
The contact between the wing tip and the ground is a highly
nonlinear process. In order to accurately simulate the local
stiffness and structural deformation during the contact
between the wing tip and the ground, the shell element model
is used for the wing tip part, and the average mesh size is
15cm.Shell element model adopts elastic-plastic material
4 Load Analysis
4.1 Motion Analysis
To calculate the impact force between the wing and the
ground, the initial velocity at the time the wing tip touches
the ground is needed. The aircraft single wheel landing
motion model is used for explicit calculation by using
Abaqus software. Gravity and lift are applied at the center of
gravity of the whole aircraft, and control moments are
applied on the left and right wings. The rotational angular
velocity of the aircraft is shown in Figure 5. The rotational
angular velocity of the aircraft when it touches the ground is
0.19rad/s.

Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSIDADE DE SAO PAULO. Downloaded on January 13,2023 at 23:37:52 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 4.3 Dynamic response load calculation of wing
In Nastran software, the whole aircraft load model is used for
transient time-domain calculation, and the time-domain data
of ground reaction force and friction force are applied as
excitation to the corresponding rigid axis station of the right
wing, and the dynamic response results of each station of the
wing at different times are obtained. After post-processing,
the load envelope lines are obtained, as shown in Fig.
g 8-10.

Fig. 5 wing tip angular velocity time history

4.2 Impact failure analysis

In the Abaqus software, the impact failure analysis is carried
out by using the detail model of ground contact position, and
the ground reaction force is obtained. The coefficient of
dynamic friction is multiplied by the ground reaction to
obtain dynamic friction. The aircraft had the maximum
Fig. 8 wing shear force envelope
landing weight and an initial angular velocity of 0.19rad/s,
rotating the fulcrum around the left main gear. The ground is
assumed to be a rigid plane with fixed support constraints.
The calculated curve of ground impact force with time is
shown in Fig. 6. The plastic strain cloud diagram of the
detailed model at the wing tip is shown in Fig. 7. It can be
seen that only a small part of elements enter plasticity phase
and no element is damaged during the calculation of impact
force.

Fig. 9 wing torque envelope1

Fig. 6 ground impact force time history

Fig. 10 wing bending moment envelope

Fig. 7 Plastic strain contours of detail model

Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSIDADE DE SAO PAULO. Downloaded on January 13,2023 at 23:37:52 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
5 Conclusion [14] Gou Z Q, Sun X S, Song B F.: 'Influence of Sub-floor
Structural Parameters on the Fuselage Crashworthiness of
According to the airworthiness clause CCAR25.721(b), the Composite Material Civil Mechanical Science and
analysis model is reasonably simplified considering the Technology for Aerospace engineer-ing', 2008,27(5) ,
flexibility of the fuselage and the local stiffness and plastic
pp.620–624
deformation of the contact part, and a feasible method for
analysing the emergency landing load with single main take- [15] Yin C W, Xu J, Tong M B.: 'Analysis of Energy
off is presented. Absorption Characteristics for Composite Waved Beams',
Jiangsu Aviation, 2012, (S1), pp.130–132
6 References [16] Feng Z Y, Yuan P, Zhou T C et al.: 'Simulation Analysis
of Energy Absorption Characteristics for Different Waved
[1] CAAC: 'CCAR-25-R3 PART 25 AIRWORTHINESS
Beams', Mechanical Science and Technology for Aerospace
STANDARDS: TRANSPORT CATEGORYAIRPLANES',
Engineering, 2014, 33(6) , pp.948–952
2001
[17] Zhang J X, Qiu G R.: 'The Research of Crashworthiness
[2] Freund D, Mckissack D R, Hanson L C et al.: 'Dynamic
Performance for Helicopter Epoxy Composite', Helicopter
taxi, take-off and landing roll analyses for large business jet
Technique, 2008, (2) , pp.47–50
aircraft', 41st Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials
[18] Yang Z C, Yan L J.: 'Effects of passenger seat stiffness
Conference and Exhibit. 2000
on the impact responses of human body during aircraft force-
[3] EADA-CASA.: 'NT-A4-AA0-09001 A400M: Wheel-UP-
landing', Journal of Vibration and Shock, 2009, (5) , pp.10–
Landing Methodology’, 2009.
12
[4] Liu X C, Zhou S F, MA J F, et al.: 'Correlation Study of
[19] Fan Y Y, Guo H S, Ma S W.: 'Pylon break-away design
Crash Analysis and Test of Civil Airplane Sub-cabin Energy
of civil aircraft’, Civil Aircraft Design and Research, 2010,
Absorption Structure' ,Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica
(4) , pp.28–29
Sinica, 2012, 33(12), pp. 2202–2210
[20] Zheng J B.: 'Hanging Structure Optimization Design of
[5] Zhu X D, Zhu G R.: 'Crashworthiness simulation of civil
Aircraft Engine'. PhD thesis, Wuhan University, 2014
aircraft fuselage section', Journal of Vibration Engineering,
2008, 21(s), pp. 28-30
[6] Wang S, Yao X H.: 'The numerical simulation of civil
aircraft fuselage crashworthiness', Aeronautical Science &
Technology, 2015, 26 (3), pp. 29–33
[7] Wang Y Q, Zhu S H, Wang T et al.: 'Simulation on
Crashworthiness of Transport Civil Aircraft Fuselage
Structures', Journal of Nanjing University of Aeronautics &
Astronautics, 2013, 45(2), pp.186–190
[8] Shun X C, Guo J, Sun X S et al.: 'Drop Test and Structure
Crashworthiness Evaluation of Civil Airplane Fuselage
Section with Cabin Interiors', Acta Aeronautica et
Astronautica Sinica, 2013, 34(9) , pp.2130–2140
[9] Liu X C, Zhou S F, Sun X S et al.: 'Energy Absorption
Optimization of Civil Airplane Sub-floor Structure',
Mechanical Science and Technology for Aerospace Engineer-
ing, 2011, 30(11) , pp.1968–1972
[10] Hou Z H.: 'Crashworthiness Analysis of a Civil Aircraft
Fuselage Section'. PhD thesis, Nanjing University, 2012
[11] Zhang W W.: 'Numerical Study on Crashworthiness of
Civil Fuselage Section'. PhD thesis, Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, 2011
[12] Gu H S.: 'Study on crashworthiness of passenger plane
fuselage section with center wing'. PhD thesis, Shanghai Jiao
Tong University, 2011
[13] Gou Z Q, Sun X S, Song B F.: 'Research of Influence of
Sub-floor Structural Parameters to Crashworthiness of Civil
Aircraft Fuselage', Aeronautical Computing Technique, 2007,
37(6), pp.32–35

Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSIDADE DE SAO PAULO. Downloaded on January 13,2023 at 23:37:52 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.