Smart Technologies

for Adaptive Landing Gears

Jan Holnicki-Szulc

Institute of Fundametal Technological Research,

Polish Academy of Sciences

Swietokrzyska 21, 00-049 Warsaw, Poland

e-mail: holnicki@ippt.gov.pl, web page: http://smart.ippt.gov.pl
Presentation outline:

• Adaptive Landing Gears for Improved Impact Absorption

• Adaptive pneumatic landing gear for UAV application
• Adaptive flow control based airbags
FP6-2002-Aero-1, 2003-2006

Adaptive Landing Gears

for Improved Impact Absorption
The main functions of the airplane landing gear are:

 to absorb the kinetic energy

associated with airplane vertical
velocity

 to provide elastic suspension and

damping during taxiing and ground
maneouvres
The typical design of the
oleo-pneumatic shock absorber :

Gas

Cylinder
Oil

Cantilever gear

Damping Main fitting

element
Shock absorber

Piston

Wheel
Levered trailing arm
gear
 According to the regulations (e.g. FAR2 5) the landing gear is designed for
the appropriately chosen limit load case (e.g. vertical velocity equal to
3,05m/s)
 Statistically, the touch-down velocity during most of the typical landings
does not approach this limit

Evolution of total ground load for different landing conditions:

Fz [daN] Angle = 12 deg
10000

Angle = 0 deg

5000

0
1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
Time [s]
Shock absorber’s efficiency E :

W
E
FmaxLmax
L
W   F(x )dx
0

W – energy dissipation
Fmax – maximal damping force
Lmax – maximal stroke
Adaptive Landing Gear [ALG]

Real-time adjustment of LG characteristcs:

• Magnetorheological Fluid
• Piezo-valve

Sensing and control:

• Position and velocity measurement system
• Real-time ALG controller
 Ultrasonic distance and velocity
measurement
Reflected wave
Receiver

Transmitter
Generated ultrasonic wave

Measured distance H

Return-time estimation
 Multi-level detection with assumed thresholds

Level of discrimination

 Other, more advanced methods

Zero-crossing backbacktracking with time window

Phase angle observation
TG TR T Matched filters
Adaptive shock absorber
MRF – Magnetorheological Fluid ALG

Gas

cylinder
Liquid
MRF orifice
fluid
coil

magnetic head

piston

Damping
element
Distribution of the magnetic field in the magnetic head:
Adaptive shock absorber
Piezo-actuator based ALG
Gas

Liquid

Damping
element
PPA 80XL
Full scale laboratory tests
• Experimental stand for dynamic testing at the Institute of Aviation
 Evolution of total vertical ground load
Fz(t) - vertical ground loads
Fz [daN]
Fz [daN]
1200.00

PZ105
PZ107
1000.00
PZ155
PZ172

800.00

600.00

400.00

200.00

0.00
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
time [s]
time [s]

No control Pz105 – low touch-down kinetic energy, no control

Pz155 – low touch-down kinetic energy, optimal control
Pz107 – high touch-down kinetic energy, no control
Optimal control
Pz172 – high touch-down kinetic energy, optimal control
Change of vertical touch -down force in time and corresponding control
signal governing the dynamics of adaptive landing gear

Fz [daN] U [V]

Time [s]
Advanced modelling, design, manufacturing and field tests
- Instiute of Aviation
Flight tests PZL Mielec – M28 „Skytruck”
 Adaptive pneumatic landing gear
for UAV application
(national project: Aeronautica Integra)
 Scheme of the proposed active system

Pressure sensor 1 Main working principles:

Control • piezoelectric valve (response

Decompressed
unit time: 2 ms) controls flow of the
chamber
gas between lower and upper
chamber of the cylinder

Piezoelectric Compressed
• the measurements from both
valve chamber pressure sensors are utilized to
keep constant level of pressure
gradient between upper and
lower chamber
Pressure sensor 2
 Passive pneumatic damper
Numerical model
Experiment
V(0)=V 0
M1 u1(t)
Impacting mass

u2(t)
Accelerometers
p1(t)
M2 Displacement sensor
p2(t)

Pressure sensor

Pneumatic cylinder

1. Equations of equilibrium
Pressure sensor
2. Ideal gas law

3. Mass flow rate definition

4. Energy balance
Experimental and numerical results

a2 [ms-2] V2 [ms-1]

t [s] t [s]
p2-p1 [Pa] Fk [N]

t [s] t [s]

m = 27kg, h = 40 cm p0 = 3 atm; valve fully opened

 Comparison of the energy dissipation obtained for
various initial pressure and valve openings

p2-p1 [Pa] p2-p1 [Pa]

u [m] u [m]

p0 = 1 atm, s = 0…150 um p0 = 3 atm, s = 0…150 um

m = 27kg, h = 40 cm
Active system equipped with adaptive valve

Displacement
attenuator

Piezoelectric stacks
valve
compartment
Comparison of forces generated by the absorber in
semi-active and active system

p2-p1 [Pa]
Disturbances

Velocity
p1-p2 Control Object
Mass

t [s]
sensor
p2

sensor p2-p1 [Pa]

p1

m = 27kg, h = 40 cm, p 0 = 3 atm u [m]

Final laboratory tests of optimal shock absorber
m = 10kg, h = 65 cm

p [Pa] p [Pa]

fully controlled p
semi-controlled p

t [s] t [s]

Semi-active system Active system

pmax = 0,85atm pmax = 0,64atm
Ultrasonic distance and velocity
measurement
 AVI-3
303
0 0
0
6
04
6 0
3
0
902
0 2
Recognition of the landing conditions in the last phase

0
7
before touchdown can be regarded as an important factor of
aircaft’s safety.
AVI-3 provides short-range single-point measurements of
0
2
1 0
4
2
01
5
1 020
1
the sink speed and height of an aircraft by means of set of

8
ultrasonic sensors. This technology can be succesuffly
applied for small aircrafts (including UAV) in applications
related to landing monitoring (e.g. during pilot’s training) or
providing initial data input for systems of adaptive landing
gears.
Establishing full 3D position of the aircraft with respect to
the surface of the landing and its vertical kinetic energy is
possible by combinig three AVI-3 units.

Main features:
• microprocessor-based data processing
• low power consumption
• miniature size
• analogue and digital output interface
• water-resistant ultrasonic heads with wide directivity
• high background acoustic noise immunity
 Adaptive flow control based airbags
(patent pending)
Motivation for the research:
• The system of external airbags allows for significant
increase of the structure crashworthiness and safety of the
passengers

• Additional controllable exhaust valves increase

the airbag effectiveness and allow to adjust the
airbag characteristics to the actual impact
scenario

• Only several airbag systems applied in passenger

cars are equipped with exhaust valves nowadays NASA Orion

• The airbags are rarely used in other applications than automotive

Recent applications of the passive airbags
KAFLOAT –system protecting the Polish helicopter Anakonda equipped
ship against sinking with airbags for landing on water

Israelian BELL 216 equipped with NASA Mars Pathfinder surrounded

airbags for emergency landing by multi-chamber airbag
 Flow control based adaptive airbags

• System of sensors:
- ultrasound velocity sensor
- pressure sensors inside airbags
- accelerometers inside helicopter chassis

• Adaptability:
- airbags inflation adjusted to landing velocity, direction and he licopter mass
- substantial gas release by fabric leakage as in typical airbag
- additional controlled release of pressure using High Performance Valves ( HPV)

Control objectives:
• Mitigation of acceleration acting on passengers
• Alleviation of forces acting on helicopter and stresses arising in undercarriage
• Stabilization of the helicopter during touch -down
 Simplified modelling of emergency landing
Numerical model:
- total mass: 5000 kg; impact velocity: 5m/s to 10m/s (free fall ing from 5,1 m)
- 2D model: falling helicopter modelled by beam elements and poin t masses
- 3D model: helicopter undercarriage (shell elem.), airbags (memb rane elem.)

M=5000kg

V0=10m/s

p(t) p(t)

Estimation of required parameters:

- total dimensions of the airbags: 4 x 1m 2 x 0.5m
- constant pressure in the airbags necessary to avoid direct coll ision with ground
for velocity 10m/s: 1.25 atm overpressure
Minimisation of falling object acceleration
• Measured response: acceleration of the concentrated mass
located in the middle of the falling object

• Simplified simulation of the landing

• Fast release of pressure during first stage
• Mitigation of the following rebounds

Controlled
gas release
Minimisation of stresses in helicopter undercarriage
• Measured response: maximal stress in the lower beam
of the falling object

• Optimal initial pressure in closed airbag: p 0=0.4atm. Max. stress: 397MPa

• Optimal airbag with gas release: p 0=0.9atm, discharge coefficient providing
utilisation of whole airbag stroke. Max stress: 290MPa
• Fully adaptive system: constant pressure during impact p=1. 1 atm, Stress: 263MPa

Stress [Pa]
Pressure [N/m 2] Mass of the gas [kg]