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At least 127 records · Page 7

Aeroacoustic Analysis of a Simplified Landing Gear

A hybrid approach is used to investigate the noise generated by a simplified landing gear without small scale parts such as hydraulic lines and fasteners. The Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation is used to predict the noise at far-field observer locations from flow data provided by an unsteady computational fluid dynamics calculation. A simulation with 13 million grid points has been completed, and comparisons are made between calculations with different turbulence models. Results indicate that the turbulence model has a profound effect on the levels and character of the unsteadiness. Flow data on solid surfaces and a set of permeable surfaces surrounding the gear have been collected. Noise predictions using the porous surfaces appear to be contaminated by errors caused by large wake fluctuations passing through the surfaces. However, comparisons between predictions using the solid surfaces with the near-field CFD solution are in good agreement giving confidence in the far-field results.

Lockard, David P.↗

A method for landing gear modeling and simulation with experimental validation

This document presents an approach for modeling and simulating landing gear systems. Specifically, a nonlinear model of an A-6 Intruder Main Gear is developed, simulated, and validated against static and dynamic test data. This model includes nonlinear effects such as a polytropic gas model, velocity squared damping, a geometry governed model for the discharge coefficients, stick-slip friction effects and a nonlinear tire spring and damping model. An Adams-Moulton predictor corrector was used to integrate the equations of motion until a discontinuity caused by a stick-slip friction model was reached, at which point, a Runga-Kutta routine integrated past the discontinuity and returned the problem solution back to the predictor corrector. Run times of this software are around 2 mins. per 1 sec. of simulation under dynamic circumstances. To validate the model, engineers at the Aircraft Landing Dynamics facilities at NASA Langley Research Center installed one A-6 main gear on a drop carriage and used a hydraulic shaker table to provide simulated runway inputs to the gear. Model parameters were tuned to produce excellent agreement for many cases.

Daniels, James N.↗

Testing and analysis of dual-mode adaptive landing gear, taxi mode test system for YF-12A

The effectiveness of a dual mode adaptive landing gear system in reducing the dynamic response of an airplane during ground taxiing was studied. The dynamic taxi tests of the YF-12A research airplane are presented. A digital computer program which simulated the test conditions is discussed. The dual mode system as tested provides dynamic taxi response reductions of 25 percent at the cg and 30 to 45 percent at the cockpit.

Gamon, M. A.↗

Experimental and analytical determination of characteristics affecting light aircraft landing-gear dynamics

An experimental and analytical investigation was conducted to determine which characteristics of a light aircraft landing gear influence gear dynamic behavior significantly. The investigation focused particularly on possible modification for load control. Pseudostatic tests were conducted to determine the gear fore-and-aft spring constant, axial friction as a function of drag load, brake pressure-torque characteristics, and tire force-deflection characteristics. To study dynamic tire response, vertical drops were conducted at impact velocities of 1.2, 1.5, and 1.8 m/s onto a level surface; to determine axial-friction effects, a second series of vertical drops were made at 1.5 m/s onto surfaces inclined 5 deg and 10 deg to the horizontal. An average dynamic axial-friction coefficient of 0.15 was obtained by comparing analytical data with inclined surface drop test data. Dynamic strut bending and associated axial friction were found to be severe for the drop tests on the 10 deg surface.

Fasanella, E. L.↗

Aerodynamics of a Gulfstream G550 Nose Landing Gear Model

In this paper we discuss detailed steady and unsteady aerodynamic measurements of a Gulfstream G550 nose landing gear model. The quarter-scale, high-fidelity model includes part of the lower fuselage and the gear cavity. The full model configuration allowed for removal of various gear components (e.g. light cluster, steering mechanism, hydraulic lines, etc.) in order to document their effects on the local flow field. The measurements were conducted at a Reynolds number of 7.3 x 10(exp 4) based on the shock strut (piston) diameter and a freestream Mach number of 0.166. Additional data were also collected at lower Mach numbers of 0.12 and 0.145 and correspondingly lower Reynolds numbers. The boundary layer on the piston was tripped to enable turbulent flow separation, so as to better mimic the conditions encountered during flight. Steady surface pressures were gathered from an extensive number of static ports on the wheels, door, fuselage, and within the gear cavity. To better understand the resultant flow interactions between gear components, surface pressure fluctuations were collected via sixteen dynamic pressure sensors strategically placed on various subcomponents of the gear. Fifteen of the transducers were flush mounted on the gear surface at fixed locations, while the remaining one was a mobile transducer that could be placed at numerous varying locations. The measured surface pressure spectra are mainly broadband in nature, lacking any local peaks associated with coherent vortex shedding. This finding is in agreement with off-surface flow measurements using PIV that revealed the flow field to be a collection of separated shear layers without any dominant vortex shedding processes.

Neuhart, Dan H.↗

Evaluation of metal landing gear door assembly selectively reinforced with filamentary composite for space shuttle application

The development and evaluation of a main landing gear door for space shuttle applications are discussed. The door is constructed on composite materials using a rib-stiffened titanium panel selectively reinforced with boron/epoxy composite. A weight comparison between the hybrid design and the all-titanium baseline design showed a weight saving of approximately fifteen percent. Detailed descriptions of the door structure and method of manufacture are presented.

Kong, S. J.↗

Investigation of the Maximum Spin-Up Coefficients of Friction Obtained During Tests of a Landing Gear Having a Static-Load Rating of 20,000 Pounds

An experimental investigation was made at the Langley landing loads track to obtain data on the maximum spin-up coefficients of friction developed by a landing gear having a static-load rating of 20,000 pounds. The forward speeds ranged from 0 to approximately 180 feet per second and the sinking speeds, from 2.7 feet per second to 9.4 feet per second. The results indicated the variation of the maximum spin-up coefficient of friction with forward speed and vertical load. Data obtained during this investigation are also compared with some results previously obtained for nonrolling tires to show the effect of forward speed.

Batterson, Sidney A.↗

Aeroacoustic Simulation of Nose Landing Gear on Adaptive Unstructured Grids With FUN3D

Numerical simulations have been performed for a partially-dressed, cavity-closed nose landing gear configuration that was tested in NASA Langley s closed-wall Basic Aerodynamic Research Tunnel (BART) and in the University of Florida's open-jet acoustic facility known as the UFAFF. The unstructured-grid flow solver FUN3D, developed at NASA Langley Research center, is used to compute the unsteady flow field for this configuration. Starting with a coarse grid, a series of successively finer grids were generated using the adaptive gridding methodology available in the FUN3D code. A hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes/large eddy simulation (RANS/LES) turbulence model is used for these computations. Time-averaged and instantaneous solutions obtained on these grids are compared with the measured data. In general, the correlation with the experimental data improves with grid refinement. A similar trend is observed for sound pressure levels obtained by using these CFD solutions as input to a FfowcsWilliams-Hawkings noise propagation code to compute the farfield noise levels. In general, the numerical solutions obtained on adapted grids compare well with the hand-tuned enriched fine grid solutions and experimental data. In addition, the grid adaption strategy discussed here simplifies the grid generation process, and results in improved computational efficiency of CFD simulations.

Vatsa, Veer N.↗

Aeroacoustic Simulation of a Nose Landing Gear in an Open Jet Facility Using FUN3D

Numerical simulations have been performed for a partially-dressed, cavity-closed nose landing gear configuration that was tested in NASA Langley s closed-wall Basic Aerodynamic Research Tunnel (BART) and in the University of Florida s open-jet acoustic facility known as UFAFF. The unstructured-grid flow solver, FUN3D, developed at NASA Langley Research center is used to compute the unsteady flow field for this configuration. A hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes/large eddy simulation (RANS/LES) turbulence model is used for these computations. Time-averaged and instantaneous solutions compare favorably with the measured data. Unsteady flowfield data obtained from the FUN3D code are used as input to a Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings noise propagation code to compute the sound pressure levels at microphones placed in the farfield. Significant improvement in predicted noise levels is obtained when the flowfield data from the open jet UFAFF simulations is used as compared to the case using flowfield data from the closed-wall BART configuration.

Vatsa, Veer N.↗

Aeroacoustic Simulations of a Nose Landing Gear Using FUN3D on Pointwise Unstructured Grids

Numerical simulations have been performed for a partially-dressed, cavity-closed (PDCC) nose landing gear configuration that was tested in the University of Florida's open-jet acoustic facility known as the UFAFF. The unstructured-grid flow solver FUN3D is used to compute the unsteady flow field for this configuration. Mixed-element grids generated using the Pointwise(TradeMark) grid generation software are used for these simulations. Particular care is taken to ensure quality cells and proper resolution in critical areas of interest in an effort to minimize errors introduced by numerical artifacts. A hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes/large eddy simulation (RANS/LES) turbulence model is used for these simulations. Solutions are also presented for a wall function model coupled to the standard turbulence model. Time-averaged and instantaneous solutions obtained on these Pointwise grids are compared with the measured data and previous numerical solutions. The resulting CFD solutions are used as input to a Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings noise propagation code to compute the farfield noise levels in the flyover and sideline directions. The computed noise levels compare well with previous CFD solutions and experimental data.

Vatsa, Veer N.↗

An Approach to Designing Passive Self-Leveling Landing Gear with Application to the Lunar Lander

Once the lunar lander has touched down on the moon problems can occur if the crew module is not level. To mitigate, compliant landing gear provide a solution that would allow the module to be leveled once it has landed on some ground slope. The work presented here uses compliant joints, or flexures, for each leg of the module and optimizes the mechanics of these flexures such that the module can be passively leveled over a range of landing slopes. Preliminary results suggest that for landing on a slope of up to 12 deg the effective slope of the module can be reduced to a maximum of 2.5 deg.

Rippere, Troy B.↗

An Approach to Designing Passive Self-Leveling Landing Gear with Application to the Lunar Lander

Once the lunar lander has touched down on the moon problems can occur if the crew module is not level. To mitigate, compliant landing gear provide a solution that would allow the module to be leveled once it has landed on some ground slope. The work presented here uses compliant joints, or flexures, for each leg of the module and optimizes the mechanics of these flexures such that the module can be passively leveled over a range of landing slopes. Preliminary results suggest that for landing on a slope of up to 12 deg the effective slope of the module can be reduced to a maximum of 2.5 deg.

Rippere, Troy B.↗

Predictions of LAGOON Nose Landing Gear Flow and Noise Using Wall-Modeled Large-Eddy Simulations

Wall-modeled large-eddy simulations (WMLESs) of the LAGOON nose landing gear are conducted with compressible Navier–Stokes equations and immersed boundary technique using the Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics (LAVA) framework. The simulations are conducted using six different Cartesian octree meshes for the grid sensitivity analysis of the near-field and far-field numerical predictions, where the far-field noise results are computed with the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings acoustic analogy. The effects of numerical tripping induced at the exact locations of the tripping devices in the experiments are also examined. In general, better comparison with the experimental results are shown for the the near-field results obtained with the simulations under the effects of numerical tripping. The effects of tripping are not significant on the far-field noise calculations and the results have reasonable comparison with the experimental data in the low and medium frequency ranges when an impermeable formulation of the acoustic analogy is used.

CST↗

Aeroacoustic Simulations of a Nose Landing Gear with FUN3D: A Grid Refinement Study

A systematic grid refinement study is presented for numerical simulations of a partially-dressed, cavity-closed (PDCC) nose landing gear configuration that was tested in the University of Florida's open-jet acoustic facility known as the UFAFF. The unstructured-grid flow solver FUN3D is used to compute the unsteady flow field for this configuration. Mixed-element grids generated using the Pointwise (Registered Trademark) grid generation software are used for numerical simulations. Particular care is taken to ensure quality cells and proper resolution in critical areas of interest in an effort to minimize errors introduced by numerical artifacts. A set of grids was generated in this manner to create a family of uniformly refined grids. The finest grid was then modified to coarsen the wall-normal spacing to create a grid suitable for the wall-function implementation in FUN3D code. A hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes/large eddy simulation (RANS/LES) turbulence modeling approach is used for these simulations. Time-averaged and instantaneous solutions obtained on these grids are compared with the measured data. These CFD solutions are used as input to a FfowcsWilliams-Hawkings (FW-H) noise propagation code to compute the farfield noise levels. The agreement of the computed results with the experimental data improves as the grid is refined.

Vatsa, Veer N.↗

Application of active control landing gear technology to the A-10 aircraft

Two concepts which reduce the A-10 aircraft's wing/gear interface forces as a result of applying active control technology to the main landing gear are described. In the first concept, referred to as the alternate concept a servovalve in a closed pressure control loop configuration effectively varies the size of the third stage spool valve orifice which is embedded in the strut. This action allows the internal energy in the strut to shunt hydraulic flow around the metering orifice. The command signal to the loop is reference strut pressure which is compared to the measured strut pressure, the difference being the loop error. Thus, the loop effectively varies the spool valve orifice size to maintain the strut pressure, and therefore minimizes the wing/gear interface force referenced.

Ross, I.↗

Landing gear energy absorption system

A landing pad system is described for absorbing horizontal and vertical impact forces upon engagement with a landing surface where circumferentially arranged landing struts respectively have a clevis which receives a slidable rod member and where the upper portion of a slidable rod member is coupled to the clevis by friction washers which are force fit onto the rod member to provide for controlled constant force energy absorption when the rod member moves relative to the clevis. The lower end of the friction rod is pivotally attached by a ball and socket to a support plate where the support plate is arranged to slide in a transverse direction relative to a housing which contains an energy absorption material for absorbing energy in a transverse direction.

Hansen, Christopher P.↗

Application of composites to helicopter airframe and landing gear structures

A preliminary design study has indicated that advanced composite helicopter airframe structures can provide significant system cost advantages in the 1980's. A seven percent increase in productivity and a five percent reduction in life cycle cost are projected. Due to their complexity, landing gear structures do not substantially benefit from the use of advanced composites. The most successful concept was found to be all-molded composite modular panels, which provide integral skin/stringer and frame subassemblies. These subassemblies significantly reduce the number of parts relative to present construction. The subassemblies are mechanically jointed together for economical, rapid final assembly and permit field replacement in the event of major damage.

Rich, M. J.↗