Evaluation of the lateral loading caused by aircraft with complex gear configurations turning during taxiing

ABSTRACT

The advent of New Generation Large Aircraft (NGLA), such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380, has introduced more complicated landing gears and heavier axle loads. The wheel configurations and loads induce complex mechanical response to the pavement structure particularly during turning movements while taxiing. The objective of this paper is to determine the lateral force on all wheels during turning movements to permit future field measurements and pavement design. The paper documents the use of the velocity instantaneous method to analyse the lateral forces imparted by a B747 and A380 under a moving aircraft. Firstly a multi-wheel landing gear is represented by a single wheel, and then the total lateral force of each landing gear at different velocities is analysed, and the total lateral force of a multi-wheel gear is assigned to each wheel. The results show that both taxiing velocity and nose gear steering angle have an effect on the lateral force during turning at low speed, and an increase in velocity and nose gear steering angle cause a significant increase in the lateral force. The maximum wheel lateral force of A380 is located on the front landing gear without sideslip whereas of the B747 it is located on the inside wheel of the wing landing gear near the center. These positions are recommended as the critical design factor.

KEYWORDS:

• Large aircraft
• heavy axle loads
• tuning movement
• complicated landing gears
• lateral force

Additional information

Funding

The research work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 51308064]; the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant number 2014M552398].