Virtual Prototyping for Aircraft Landing Gear System Design

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

I’ve been hooked on flying machines since my childhood as a free-range kid. Alone in the yard, I’d drop my toys to gape in awe at a passing jet. Today’s Check it Out link tickled my inner aeronautical geek.

“Virtual Prototyping for Aircraft Landing Gear System Design” is a complete Web resource on how to leverage engineering solutions from ANSYS to study the complex design and physics phenomena inherent in landing gear systems. I mean complete: It contains three articles, two white papers, an on-demand webinar, a short video and a downloadable technical presentation. It is a feast.

In the 50,000-ft. view, landing gears are electromechanical systems that require engineering teams to meet a seemingly endless list of operational and safety considerations. They have to support an aircraft’s weight and handle landing impact loads, but they can’t be too heavy. They affect aerodynamic performance when they’re deployed, so you need to account for that. On it goes. You get the picture.

The physics involved are legion: computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for aerodynamic performance predictions, finite elements for strength analysis and rigid body dynamics for motion assessments. But that’s not even half of it. You’re also bringing in acoustics. You need fatigue and durability analyses to help you understand how the system’s composite materials will perform under real-world working conditions.

You’re not done yet. For a complete characterization, you have to deal with geometry in multiple CAD and ECAD formats as you prepare for simulation. You have embedded control and display code to integrate with the hardware to simulate the full landing gear system realistically.

When you explore the design trade space for aircraft landing gear systems, you confront an array of thorny engineering challenges. The image here depicts the aeroelastic response of a landing gear door. Image courtesy of ANSYS Inc.

The plotline for the “Virtual Prototyping for Aircraft Landing Gear System Design” Web resource is that there is no single point solution for the complex multiphysics and multidisciplinary design challenges posed by landing gear systems. But, engineering teams can leverage at least 11 design and engineering toolsets from ANSYS to create an integrated virtual prototyping environment to develop and characterize complete aircraft landing gear systems.

Such an integrated virtual prototyping environment can reduce the number of physical prototypes required to validate designs and, more importantly, lead to a better, safer solution than would be possible using traditional design methods. Hit today’s Check it Out link, read the papers and watch the demonstration video and webinar to see how ANSYS solutions can simplify the design of aircraft landing gear systems. Terrific stuff.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering

Access “Virtual Prototyping for Aircraft Landing Gear System Design” here.