STRUCTURAL OPTIMIZATION OF A NOSE LANDING GEAR FOR CESSNA 172 AIRPLANE

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.1732118063

• Palavras-chave: Structural optimization, structural analysis, landing gear, Cessna.

• Keywords: Structural optimization, structural analysis, landing gear, Cessna.

• Abstract:

  The landing gear assembly is one of the most important aircraft systems because it is the first interface with the ground at the time of landing, supporting individually great part of the impact load that is applied on the aircraft at this instant. Therefore, this system must be provided with a certain security level to perform such a task, however without adding too much mass to the aircraft, i.e. it must be robust enough to support the referred efforts, without aggregating mass enough to increase the fuel consumption to non-acceptable levels. Hence, the structural optimization is necessary, aiming at minimizing the masses of the system components. In this paper, the nose landing gear fork of CESSNA 172 airplane is designed and subjected to a size optimization (minimizing its mass). From the free body diagram analytical and computational calculations (applying the Finite Element Method) are performed, the latter method being the basis for the structural optimization. Based on the initial design, the results show that the mass has the potential to be reduced at about 33.13%, making the component lighter and, therefore, bringing a reduction in the operational cost of the referred aircraft.

• Número de páginas: 15