International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume-1, Issue-1, July-2013

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF LANDING STRUT MADEUP OF

CARBON FIBRE COMPOSITE MATERIAL
1
R. ARRAVIND, 2M. SARAVANAN, 3R. MOHAMED RIJUVAN
1
Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Excel College of Engineering & Technology, Tamil Nadu, India
2
Principal, SBM College of Engineering & Technology, Tamil Nadu, India
3
Final Year, B.E Aeronautical Engineering, Excel College of Engineering & Technology, Tamil Nadu, India
Email id: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract: The landing strut is a structure that supports a helicopter on ground and allows it to take-off, and land. In fact,
landing strut design tends to have several interferences with the helicopter structural design. Now a day the weight of landing
strut has become an important factor. Efforts are being made to reduce the weight of the helicopter and consequently increase
the payload. This paper presents an approach to optimize the design of landing strut of a Light Compact Helicopter (LCH)
made of Carbon Fibre Composite Material adopted from Aerospace Specification Metals (ASM). First the structural
behavior is tested using the structural analysis when subjected to behavior constraints. Optimization process is carried out
iteratively to minimize thickness of landing strut which results in the minimum weight of landing strut.

I. INTRODUCTION landing strut simulation was analyzed by Derek

Morrison et al. [4] by performing two types of
Each type of helicopter needs a unique analysis. The first is kinematic evaluation of front
landing strut with a specific structural system, which nose strut and other is the structural study of main
can complete the demands described by unique landing strut for a light weight helicopter. The
characteristics associated with each helicopter. The approach for modeling and simulating landing strut
landing strut is the component that supports a systems was proposed by James Daniels [5] devolved
helicopter and allows it to move on the ground. a nonlinear model of an A-6 intruder main strut, the
Conventional landing strut is one of the types among simulation and validation was performed against the
the landing strut where the strut legs indeed of static and dynamic test data. A discussion has been
tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one done on problems facing by the helicopter
strut either back or front and two main strut legs. The community in landing strut dynamics, especially in
main strut leg comprises a simple single piece of shimmy and brake-induced vibration by Jocelyn
carbon fibre composite material spring leaf type Pritchard [6], experimentally validated and
which is bolted at the bottom of the fuselage. characterized the shimmy and brake-induced
The design and development of a landing vibration of helicopter landing strut. The design
strut encompasses several engineering disciplines analysis of Light Landing Strut was presented by
such as structures, mechanical systems, Amit Goyal [7]. In the development phase,
aerodynamics, material science, and so on. The conducting a rigorous non-linear stress and buckling
conventional landing strut design [1] and analysis was carried out and also conducting various
development for aerospace vehicles is based on the experimentations on different combinations of loads
availability of several critical components/systems and orientations. Noam Eliaz et al. [8] discussed
such as forgings, machined parts, mechanisms, sheet failure of beams of landing strut during operation.
metal parts, electrical systems, hydraulic systems, and During replacement of a wheel on the helicopter, a
a wide variety of materials such as carbon fibre crack was found on the rear axle bore of the left-hand
composite materials, steel and titanium, beryllium, main landing strut truck beam. The aero structure
and polymer composites. As the science of materials analysis on ME 548 was analyzed by Dave Briscoe
is progressing continuously it is natural that the use of [9] verified that the vonmises and deflections of
new materials will replace older designs with new landing strut and also proved that results given by the
ones. Energy absorption and crashworthy features are ANSYS and SOLID WORKS software are not same
the primary design criteria that govern the because of improper meshing of components. The
development of landing struts. The impact force on specific constrained layer damping applications for
landing strut has been discussed by Flugge [2] cantilever-loaded steel spring landing strut was
considering both the landing and taxiing impact investigated by Oraig Gellimore [10]. This work
forces and neglected the drag force acting on it. The involves validation of the cost efficient design of
crack generation in the landing strut components was traditional landing strut damping devices when used
observed by Fujimoto [3] and the basic causes of in constrained layer damping. The dynamic analysis
damage were found to be processing operations, of landing strut for critical work conditions by
latent material defects, mechanical damage and crack applying finite element analysis was analyzed by
growth developed at corrosion pits. The helicopter Jerzy Malachowski [11].The design of light landing

Structural Analysis of Landing Strut MADEUP of Carbon FIBRE Composite Material

1
International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume-1, Issue-1, July-2013

strut by conducting structural analysis and design III. FLOW CHAT

optimization was analyzed by Essam Albahkali and
Mohammed Alqhtani [12] by conducting experiments
on landing strut using impact analysis. Review of Start
literature survey on different types of landing struts
shows that landing strut is analyzed for safety of the
structure and effort was made to identify the faults
Create 3D Cad Model
occurring in them. However there is limited literature
available on conventional landing strut made of
ASM7075-T6 material. The present study deals with
the structural analysis and optimization of landing Clean up the 3D Cad Model
strut’s leg made of ASM7075-T6 material and the
analysis was carried out using ANSYS (Version 13).
Save the 3D Cad Geometry
II. GEOMETRICAL MODEL
Save the 3D Cad Geometry in Neutral
The undercarriage or landing strut in
aviation is the component that supports an aircraft on
the ground and allows it to land. Conventional Define Material Properties
landing strut consists of horizontal struts connected
with parallel struct which possess centre of gravity.
This type of landing strut is most often used in older Solve
generation aviation airplanes and now a day, it is used
in LCH.
The following are assumptions to be considered for Post Processing
analysis
1. The material is assumed to elastic and Stop
homogenous.
2. The analysis has been carried out with in
elastic limits. IV. MATERIAL PROPERTIES
3. Both Solid (pipe element) and shell elements
are used for analysis. Here we are using the materials for analysis
4. Rigid Body Element (RBE3) connection is of helicopter strut is Carbon fibre composite
used for load transfer. materials. It having density as 1.6 g/cm3, Young’s
modulus as 70 Gpa and poissons ratio as 0.10.
Carbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon
graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about
5–10 µm in diameter and composed mostly
of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded
together in crystals that are more or less aligned
parallel to the long axis of the fiber. The crystal
alignment gives the fiber high strength-to-volume
ratio (makes it strong for its size). Several thousand
carbon fibers are bundled together to form a tow,
which may be used by itself or woven into a fabric.
The properties of carbon fibers, such as high stiffness,
high tensile strength, low weight, high chemical
resistance, high temperature tolerance and low
Figure 2.1: Landing Strut
thermal expansion, make them very popular in
Figure 2.1 shows the model of landing strut chosen
aerospace, civil engineering, military, and
for analysis which has been used for light compact
motorsports, along with other competition sports.
helicopter and at present these are used in LCH. The
However, they are relatively expensive when
weight of landing Strut considered for analysis was
compared to similar fibers, such as glass fibers or
taken as 6 kg.
plastic fibers. Carbon fibers are usually combined
The data required for designing and weight
with other materials to form a composite. When
of landing strut has been taken from “Grove
combined with a plastic resin and wound or molded it
Helicopter Landing Gear Systems Inc”, which is a
forms carbon fiber reinforced plastic (often referred
complete custom landing gear company manufactures
to as carbon fiber) which has a very high strength-to-
ready to bolt component design for customer
weight ratio, and is extremely rigid although
requirements to individual aircrafts and Helicopter.
somewhat brittle. However, carbon fibers are also

Structural Analysis of Landing Strut MADEUP of Carbon FIBRE Composite Material

2
International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume-1, Issue-1, July-2013

composed with other materials, such as with graphite

to form carbon-carbon composites, which have a very
high heat tolerance.

Figure 2.2: 3D-meshed model of landing gear’s leg

Figure 2.2 shows the 3D model of the
V. PROCEDURE landing gear’s leg which is meshed in HYPERMESH
and applied the boundary conditions. The applied
1. Define Geometry: First of all, we have to boundary conditions for the model are as follows,
define the geometry and dimension for the  Fixing the gear leg at bolting portion in all
helicopter strut. With the help of obtained directions.
geometry, we have to design 3D model of  The loads such as lift, drag, side and torsion
the landing strut with the help of CAD are applied in respective directions..
Package software’s like Pro/E, Catia and NX  Gear leg and axle component are glued to
CAD. After model has been designed, we make a single component.
have to save the modeled design in the
common format like IGES or STEP.
2. For Analysis of landing strut, here we are
using Ansys Workbench V12.0.1, this
analysis can be also done with the help
Nastran software too.
3. Meshing has been done for the designed
model, here we used tetrahydral element
type for dividing the model into small
number of elements Figure 2.3: Loads applied on landing gear’s
4. We have defined the fixed support and force leg
acting on the strut. Here we use force as The maximum possible loads which are given as
400N because the load acting on the landing design loads are applied through RBE3 connection at
strut during landing will be around 350N. the axle end spreading to wheel base. The units are
5. Then we have to select the result what are all taken in such a way that translational forces are in
we need for further studies like deformation, newton and torsion moment is represented in newton-
stress and strain millimeters. The colour code is used to represent the
problem boundary conditions.
VI. LANDING GEAR LOADS
VII. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
The design loads applied on aircraft are lift load,
drag load, side load and torsion load. Lift is the There are several types of structural analysis
upward force created by the air flow as it passes over which play an important role in finding the structural
the wing, drag is the retarding force (back ward force) safety under stress and deformation. From that the
that limits the aircrafts speed, side load is the basic structural safety of the component can be found
opposing acting in inward direction of gear leg and by analyzing the structure for static and dynamic
torsion load is applied when the air craft structure loading conditions.
rotates. Table 2 shows general design loads
considered to test the landing gear’s leg. VIII. STATIC ANALYSIS:
Table 1: Landing Strut Loads (Design Loads)
Type of Load Value A static analysis is used to calculate the effects of
Landing Load 400 N steady loading conditions on a structure, while
ignoring inertia and damping effects, such as those
With the above all specifications the model caused by time-varying loads. This analysis has been
was designed in CATIA (Ver-11), meshed in done by applying static loads and results are
HYPERMESH (Ver-12) and the results are viewed in presented for the displacements and vonmises
ANSYS (Ver-12). stresses, because vonmises stress theory is the main

Structural Analysis of Landing Strut MADEUP of Carbon FIBRE Composite Material

3
International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume-1, Issue-1, July-2013

failure theory to find the failure of the components or 2) Equilibrium condition Σ forces
factor of safety in the problem. (FX,FY,FZ)and Σ Moments (MX,MY,MZ)=0
The FE model must fulfill this condition at each
and every node. The complete model summation of
the external forces and moments is equal to the
reaction forces and moments.
The complete equation to be solved in a linear
static FE solver is F = K * u.
F is the vector of all applied external forces and
moments.
K is the stiffness matrix of the model depending
on material and geometric properties. In a linear
analysis, K is constant.
u is the nodal displacement vector.

Fig 7.1 Total Deformation

IX. WEIGHT OPTIMISATION OF THE
LANDING GEAR’S LEG

The static and spectrum results indicate that

the obtained stresses are low when compared to
allowable stresses of the material; hence there is a
possibility for optimization of the landing gear’s legs
thickness. The model with shell elements is
considered for the analysis. Various regions are
created by splitting and by varying thickness. The
thicknesses are supplied as the real constants which
can be easily optimized based on the optimization
Fig 7.2 Equivalent Von-Mises Stress cycle satisfying the design requirements. Totally 11
regions were created with different thickness
parameters for optimization. The analysis is limited to
main landing gear part. Since the axle dimension
depends on wheel diameter and suspension, so the
axle part is not considered for optimization.
In ANSYS optimization the zero-order method which
is an advanced method in sub problem approximation
technique with random design generation type
optimization tool performs multiple loops, with
random design variable obtains values at each loop. A
maximum number of loops with a desired number of
feasible loops can be specified. This tool is useful for
studying the overall design space, and for establishing
Fig 7.2 Equivalent Von-Mises Elastic Strain feasible design sets for subsequent optimization
From the above Contour Plots, we can able analysis.
to find the place where the maximum stress, strain
and deformation take place. X. OPTIMIZATION
Results
Optimization is clearly one of the overall
Plot Deformation Strain Stress strengths of Altair and Hyper Works. You may
distinguish optimization methods with respect to its
Minimum 0. m 4.6937e-012 m/m 0.32856 Pa
position in the design phase i.e. concept design
Maximum 4.4192e-004 m 5.6668e-004 m/m 3.9668e+007 Pa
optimization such as topology, topography and free
size optimization, and “fine” tuning optimization
There are two conditions for static analysis: disciplines such as size or shape optimization.
1) The force is static i.e. there is no variation Alternatively, you can distinguish according to the
with respect to time (dead weight ) design variable i.e. which variable of the system is
modified/altered during the optimization. For
instance, the design variable of a topology
optimization is the elements density, whereas in size
optimization the thickness of a sheet metal may be
varied

Structural Analysis of Landing Strut MADEUP of Carbon FIBRE Composite Material

4
International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Volume-1, Issue-1, July-2013

XII. ADVANTAGES OF FEA

Types of Optimization
1. Geometrical Parameters  Visualization
2. Shape Optimization  Design cycle time
Geometrical Parameters  No. of prototypes
- Optimization for geometry parameters,  Testing
work well at the individual component level rather  Optimum design
than with complicated assemblies.
- Software cannot add or remove geometry CONCLUSIONS
on its own but can only play with pre defined
parameters within A CAD model of landing strut for LCH was
specified limits. made and discretized in to finite element mesh using
Shape Optimization HYPERMESH. Design loads were applied through
- Usually restricted to only linear static and RBE3 connection in respective directions. Static and
normal mode dynamics. spectrum response analysis were conducted in
- Good tool for innovative products (when ANSYS. The obtained stresses are much lesser than
the initial shape is not known or fixed). the allowable stresses of the material. So design
- Software can give hints for the addition or optimization is carried out to reduce the weight of the
removal of geometry. component. The landing strut weight was reduced by
iterative process using design optimization analysis in
XI. CRASH ANALYSIS ANSYS from 6 kg to 4.1538kg for the given loading
conditions. A reduction of 1.8462 kg can be observed
1. Structural Crashworthiness Or Full which amounts to almost 30% reduction of weight.
Dynamic / Impact Simulations:
To find deformation, stress, and energy REFERENCES
absorbing capacity of various structural
components of a vehicle hitting a stationary or [1]. Norman, S. C. “Aircraft Landing strut Design: Principle and
moving object. The component is said to be Practices”, AIAA Education Series, AIAA, Washington,
crashworthy (safe) if it meets the D.C., 1988.
[2]. Flugge W, “Landing strut Impact”, NACA, TN2743, 9016,
plastic strain and energy targets. 1952.
Applications: Frontal, Side, Rear, Roof [3]. Fujimoto W.T, Gallagher J.P, “Summary of Landing strut
crush, car hitting a pole / wall etc. Initial Flaws”, AFFDL-TR-77-125, 1977.
2. Drop Test Simulations: [4]. Derek Morrison, Gregory Neff and Mohammed Zahraee,
“Aircraft landing strut simulation and analysis”, American
Drop test is a free fall test carried out to Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, 1997.
check the structural integrity of the component. [5]. James N. Daniels, “A Method for Landing strut Modeling and
Applications: Black box of an aircraft, Simulation with Experimental Validation”, NASA Contractor
mobile phone, consumer goods such as TV, Report 201601, 1996.
[6]. Jocelyn I. Pritchard, “An Overview of Landing strut
fridge etc Dynamics”, NASA/TM-1999-209143 ARL-TR- 1976.
3. Occupant Safety [7]. Amit Goyal “Light Aircraft Main Landing strut Design and
To find the effects of crash on the human Development”, SAS Tech journals pp. 45-50, 2002.
body and making the ride safe for the driver as [8]. Noam Eliaz, Haim Sheinkopf, Gil Shemesh and Hillel Artzi,
“Cracking in cargo aircraft main landing strut truck beams
well as the passengers. Several regulations exist due to abusive grinding following chromium plating”,
in different countries to ensure a proper Elsevier Engineering Failure Analysis, Vol.12, pp. 337–
certification. 347,2005.
e.g.: FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety [9]. Dave Briscoe,“ME 548 Aero structures Final Project ANSYS
Analysis of Landing strut”, 2006.
Standards) in the USA, ECE (Economic [10]. Oraig Gellimore “Constrained layer damping treatment
Commission of Europe) regulation in Europe. In design for aircraft landing”, 2007.
India, the ARAI has set up standard procedures [11]. Jerzy Malachowski “Dyanamical analysis of Landing strut for
for the Automobile industry and called AIS critical work conditions ”, 2010.
[12]. Essam Albahkali & Mohammed Alqahtani ”Design of Light
(Automotive Industry Standards) Landing strut”, 2011.



Structural Analysis of Landing Strut MADEUP of Carbon FIBRE Composite Material