Date of Last Revision
2023-05-03 12:52:46
Major
Mechanical Engineering - Cooperative Education
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Date of Expected Graduation
Spring 2019
Abstract
Collin’s Aerospace Mechanical systems engineering was tasked with designing a set of landing gear for an undisclosed project. The landing gear is required to comply with customer specifications, coordinate systems, and overall landing gear performance. The purpose of this project is to document the conceptual and embodiment design process for an articulated main landing gear system. Unfortunately, due to high expenses and high lead times required for 300M stainless steel components, no full size prototype can be produced within the timeframe of this report. Instead, this document should be viewed as a process mapping guide for initial landing gear design and sizing.
Based upon the specifications, it was quickly determined that an articulated landing gear with an oleo-pneumatic shock strut would be the most optimal design. Using the customer defined weights and landing gear coordinates, an amount of strut stroke required to dissipate the energy of a hard landing could be determined. Next, the landing gear can be solved statically at a number of points to determine the load transfer that occurs for any given load case. This data is then used for determining the overall initial sizing of the landing gear.
Based on the level of depth required to fully analyze the performance of landing gear, the scope of this report is restricted to ground and static load cases only. While not considering all cases required to fully design a landing gear, the static and ground handling cases are the first to be considered, and the entire process can be grueling based on the amount of non-automated iteration that is required to produce a design that fulfills all design requirements. Considerations must be made at this point in regards to material selection, seal sizing for struts and actuators, weight savings, retraction and locking mechanisms, and overall sizing to conform to required clearances. Any non-conformance could result in a total redesign.
Following the steps of the process outlined in this document, detail design can commence in conjunction with required analysis, especially in terms of shock strut landing performance and stress and weight analysis. The former is handled using extensive dynamic modelling, whereas the latter is currently not necessary given the simplistic geometry that was selected for this phase of the design. As the design becomes more complex, FEA analysis will need to be performed.
The process outlined within this report resulted in a preliminary design that fulfills the basic customer requirements.
Research Sponsor
Dr. Greg Morscher
First Reader
James Acks
Second Reader
Jason Horrigan
Recommended Citation
Carr, Derek, "Prototype Landing Gear Conceptual and Embodiment Design" (2019). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 837.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/837