Simulation of aircraft landing gears with a nonlinear dynamic finite element code

Recent advances in computational speed have made aircraft and spacecraft crash simulations using an explicit, nonlinear, transient-dynamic, finite element analysis code more feasible. This paper describes the development of a simple landing-gear model, which accurately simulates the energy absorbed by the gear without adding substantial complexity to the model. For a crash model the landing gear response is approximated with a spring where the force applied to the fuselage is computed in a user-written subroutine. Helicopter crash simulations using this approach are compared with previously acquired experimental data from a full-scale crash test of a composite helicopter.