2011 International Conference of Information Technology, Computer Engineering and Management Sciences

Aircraft landing gear simulation using multidomain modeling technology

LI MING, HAO XIANG-YU, HAN XUE-FENG, JIA HONG-GUANG
Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Changchun
Jilin 130033China
e-mail: liming301128@163.com
AbstractIn order to accurately analyze the performance and
influence of landing gear system, this paper presents a high
fidelity plant model of an aircraft landing gear to inclusion into
a full aircraft flight simulation. The use of domain specific
modeling software enables detailed modeling of the physics
and facilitates accurate computational simulation of the flight
dynamic, aerodynamic, landing gear dynamic and mechanical
loads that occur when the landing gear are deployed and
retracted during landing and take-off operations. The
parameter design space is easily searched by considering a
number of different landing scenarios including touching down
on one wheel first, to optimize the design. The simulation
results show that the aircraft landing gear system
mathematical model established appropriately reflects the
change of force and moment in the process of taking off and
landing, and it is improve the precision of flight simulation.

II.

Keywords- Landing gear system;flight simulation;multiple

domain modeling and simulation;taking off and landing

I.

LANDING GEAR CAD MODEL

Modeling of mechanical systems and components often

starts with CAD tools. These tools are useful for specifying
the detailed three-dimensional (3-D) mechanical design of a
component. Often, different software packages are used for
each step of this process, making it difficult to move from
mechanical 3-D modeling to control design and then from
control design to a system level simulation. This paper
introduces a streamlined workflow that enables quick and
easy transition from mechanical 3-D modeling to control
design and then to system level modeling and simulation.
The landing gear is constructed of four links: a vertical
strut, two bracing links, and a sprung extension (shock
absorber). Joints are analogous to physical connections like
hinges, slots, and ball and socket connections. For the
landing gear, the links connect to the airframe and to each
other through revolute joints, which are directly analogous to
hinges. These revolute joints are all aligned to rotate about
the axes parallel to the longitudinal axes of the airframe.
Mechanical design of mechanical components is
typically done using a CAD tool such as UG or
Pro/ENGINEER. Fig.1 shows the landing gear CAD model.
As Fig.1a shows, the main landing gear designed in UG
represents a well-known mechanical construct, the four-bar
linkage. Fig.1b shows a Pro/ENGINEER assembly of a fourbar linkage corresponding to the described configuration of
the landing gear for motion simulation.

INTRODUCTION

To efficiently employ models for design purposes, it is

important to capture the physics of the envisioned realization
in as much detail as possible so the design is an accurate
reflection of the eventual product. The challenge of the
modeler then is to identify and capture a sufficient level of
detailed dynamic behavior while maintaining computational
performance. Using general purpose modeling languages to
capture the complexity of such detailed model proportion is
difficult because of the generic concepts that have no
immediate bearing on the domain in which the system under
design operates. SimMechanics[1,2] is a tool that is
dedicated to modeling multi-body systems, for which it
includes specific language elements such as bodies that can
be connected by different types of joints, a variety of
constraint drivers, and the like. This allows the modeling of a
multi-body system to proceed using semantic notions that are
closely related to the specific domain, and the model will
closely reflect the topology of the physically connected
elements.
This paper presents the use of multi-domain modeling for
the study of aircraft landing gear. In particular, mechanical
and aerospace-specific model parts are designed and
integrated into a comprehensive model of the landing gear
behavior. A scenario where the aircraft lands on one wheel
set first is analyzed in terms of applied forces required to
perform this maneuver safely and effectively.

actuator

vertical strut

absorber

a) UG model
978-0-7695-4522-6/11 $26.00 2011 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ICM.2011.135

279

bracing links

IV.

Once a SimMechanics model has been obtained from the

assembly, additional accuracy can be attained by tuning the
model from the actual system that is being modeled[4,5].
This is especially important when combining models of
phenomena such as the normal force exerted by the ground
and the friction on the tires with detailed physical models.

actuator

vertical strut

LANDING GEAR DYNAMICS

A. Ground Normal Force

For simplicity, assume that the strut is parallel to the
airplanes body zaxis, the tires local z-coordinate is given
by:
z gL = zcL + C31 ( xgB xcB ) + C32 ( y gB ycB ) + C33 ( z gB zcB )

bracing links

absorber

b) Pro/ENGINEER model
Fig.1 Landing gear CAD model
III.

( xgB , y gB , z gB )

, and
B
B
B
(
x
,
y
,
z
)
the coordinates of the CG in body axes are c c c .
The compressive force in the strut depends on the total
z gB
. The difference between the
gear displacement
z B
uncompressed and compressed tire locations is g .
zrL zcL + C31 ( xgB xcB ) C32 ( ygB ycB )
z gB = z gB z gB= z gB
C33
The tires coordinates in body axes are

LANDING GEAR SIMMECHANICS MODEL

Instead of manually constructing a dynamic model from

SimMechanics blocks, the engineer would simply initiate the
conversion process of the CAD file to generate the dynamic
model automatically. In addition to significantly simplifying
the workflow, this enhancement would eliminate the
potential errors that system engineers or control engineers
could make when manually creating a dynamic model from
the CAD assembly.
To create a SimMechanics model from this assembly it is
necessary to download and install Pro/ENGINEER-toSimMechanics Translator. The translators automatically
exports Pro/ENGINEER assemblies into SimMechanics
models[3]. Once this free software is installed, it is possible
to generate a textual description of the assembly that lists the
mass properties for each body and the characteristics of each
joint defined in the Pro/ENGINEER assembly. Once the
Pro/ENGINEER assembly has been saved as a
SimMechanics XML file, it is possible to automatically
create a SimMechanics model out of it. The resulting
SimMechanics model with blocks rearranged and
background colors added for easier understanding is shown
in Fig.2. The built-in SimMechanics visualization is useful
for understanding the behavior of the modeled mechanisms.

Because the strut is damped, the force also depends on

the rate of landing gear displacement. The displacement rate
is given by:
B

z g = zcL / C33
A simple model for landing gear displacement force is to
assume a linear damped elastic strut, and ignore the tire
compression. Then, the compressive force in the strut is:
B

Fstrut = K z gB + C z g

where K and C are the spring and damping constants for

the strut. The strut force acts along the axis of strut; however,
the force exerted by the ground acts vertically upward. The
value of the total ground normal force is the value where the
component along the strut axis is the strut force.
Fn = Fstrut / C33
B.

Friction Force
A tire makes sense to resolve the friction force into a
forward rolling friction and a sideward sliding friction. This
paper assumes that the plane of the tires is parallel to the
body x-z-plane. The velocity of the tire in body coordinates
is the velocity of the CG plus contributions due to angular
rates.
The friction force in the sideward direction is given by
Equation
vg / Vk k Fn | vg |> Vk
Fs =
sign(vg ) s Fn | vg | Vk
The forward force calculation resembles to the sideward
force calculation.
u g / Vk k Fn | vg |> Vk
Ff =
sign(u g ) s Fn | vg | Vk

Fig.2 Landing gear SimMechanics model

280

One complication seen with forward force calculations is

the possibility of braking. Braking changes both the
threshold velocity and the kinetic friction coefficient.
Vk = Vk ,roll + b (Vk , slide Vk , roll )

Landing gear compession

Compression/m

0.02

0
158.5

Wheel force/g
Bearing load/N

98

1
WoW
Revolute4
Wheel Force

SprungedExtension

F
VerticalStrut

Constant1

Ang_pos_rmlg
F_rmlg

Force Actuator

Actuator

2
dz
Joint Sensor3

ap

Fr

BracingLink1

Joint Sensor1

160

160.5

161

Left main landing gear

Right main landing gear
Nose landing gear

15000
10000
5000

159

159.5

160

160.5

161

SUMMARIES

The paper presented a method for utilizing CAD

assemblies of mechanical components for creation of
dynamic models, multi-domain modeling, and system
simulation. The value of the proposed approach is in the
simplified model development, reuse of CAD assemblies
developed by mechanical engineers, and better
understanding of component and system dynamics through
realistic animation. The domain specific models enable
detailed modeling of physical phenomena. The resulting
model used the modified block to integrate different domain
specific models and the resultant model was used to quickly
search the parameter design space.

bearing load Constant2

Revolute3

159.5

VI.

159

Fig.5 Results for landing gear simulation

GearPos

10000

161

time/s

BearingLoad_RMLG

Joint Spring & Damper

160.5

1000

0
158.5

GearPos_rmlg

160

time/s
Bearing load

Joint Sensor2
Conn2

159.5

2000

0
158.5

The obtained SimMechanics model of the landing gear

can be incorporated into a flight simulation[6,7]. Fig.3 shows
a SimMechanics model for the main landing gear. Fig.4
shows a flight simulation model for the aircraft. An
additional wind gust was modeled to inject a roll moment
into the aircraft close to landing. This was achieved by
simply applying a moment about the x-axis of the vehicle
(roll) at a specific time and duration just prior to landing.
Fig.5 shows the resulting measurements for the landing
simulation.
Fr

159

time/s
Landing gear wheel force

ANALYSIS OF LANDING GEAR DURING LANDING

ap

0.01
0.005

3000

k = k ,roll + b ( k ,slide k ,roll )

V.

0.015

Conn1
Revolute1

Revolute2

REFERENCES

BracingLink2

Fig.3 Main landing gear SimMechanics model

[1]

UAV Flight Dynamics Model

ctrls
PosLLA
Xe
<Fg>

Xe2LLA
Ve

[2]

Xe

Env Data

FM

EnvData
1

FCScmd

Aero

em

phi_theta_psi
DCM

[AeroBus]

FCScmd
PlantData Actuator

Vb

[ActBus]

[3]

pqr

Aerodynamic

pdot_qdot_rdot

1
Si mMechanics 6 DoF Fl ight
2

ECUcmd

Pl antData

[4]

<Alpha>

FM

1/mass

ECUcmd

<Beta>
Accels

NonGravityAccels

[AeroBus]

Propul sion

<V>
<WindAngularRates>

[5]

<Mach>
<qbar>

[ActBus]

<Act_positions>

LGcmd

[6]

Model Bus
Landi ng Gear

Fig.4 Flight simulation model for the aircraft

[7]

281

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