Bifurcation study of a dynamic model of a landing gear mechanism

This paper presents a new modelling approach for the analysis of landing gear mecha- nisms. By replacing the mechanism's rotational joints with equivalent high-sti ness elas- tic joints, numerical continuation methods can be applied directly to dynamic models of landing gear mechanisms. The e ects of using elastic joints are considered through two applications | an overcentre mechanism, and a nose landing gear mechanism. In both cases, selecting a su cient sti ness for the elastic joint is shown to provide accurate con- tiuation results. The advantages of this new modelling approach are then demonstrated by considering the unlocking of a nose landing gear with a single uplock/downlock mechanism, when subjected to di erent orientations and magnitudes of gravitational loading. The un- locking process is shown to be qualitatively insensitive to changes in both load angle and load magnitude, ratifying the robustness of a previously-proposed control methodology for unlocking a nose landing gear with a single uplock/downlock mechanism.