Influence of contact points of helicopter skid landing gears on ground resonance stability

Soft-in-plane rotor systems are susceptible to a self-induced vibration phenomenon called ground resonance. This dynamic instability results from lag motions of the rotor blades coupling with airframe degrees of freedom, while the helicopter is in ground contact. As an addition to slope landing studies in the past and investigations of non-linear landing gear effects, this work focuses on a systematic study of partial skid contact. A ground resonance test environment was created. It encompasses 3D helicopter models with flexible landing gear models using direct finite-element models and applying modal reduction to embed CAD-derived landing gear models. Both approaches are used in a multibody dynamics simulation. The models showed acceptable results for the simulation of non-linear dynamic behaviour including typical non-linear effects like limit cycles. Special focus is given to different methods of contact simulation, using 3D spring–damper elements and polygonal contact elements for multi-directional contacts. The simulations showed two counteracting effects for partial ground contact and time-variant contact conditions. On one hand, the reduction of restoring forces in partial ground contact should lead to more unstable conditions. On the other hand, energy dissipation shows a larger influence on the system stability behaviour after a sudden disturbance. This effect is of high interest for soft, partial landing conditions. © 2020, The Author(s).