Finite Element Modeling of the Arresting Gear and Simulation of the Aircraft Deck Landing Dynamics

Deck arresting gear is a special aero-carrier unit that is destined to provide an efficient arrestment of the deck jet-fighters of masses 10-25 tons with high landing velocities between 180 and 240 km/h. Main elements of the modern arresting gear are a cable and a hydraulic system. During deck landing the jet-fighter grasps the cable with a hook and draws it. The cable is threaded between a system of blocks, that are forming a block-and-tackle mechanism, designated to transfer the jet-fighter pull to the hydraulic braking machine. In the latter the kinetic energy of the fighter is transferred to the heat and then dissipated. In the current work a full-scale LS-DYNA model of the deck arresting gear is created. The model contains all basic elements of the real prototype and is used to analyze the dynamic behavior of the arresting gear with different arrestment conditions. Due to the feedback control system, several characteristics of the arresting gear elements vary with some of run-time changing parameters. Standard capabilities of LS-DYNA do not enable performing simulation of such a complex system and by that reason a Delphi code is developed. The code allows managing of LS-DYNA solution and automatically makes multiple restarts during the simulation to change the definition of stiffness and damping curves, describing the arresting gear parts. The developed model is used to obtain parameters of the arresting process – fighter displacement, velocity, acceleration vs. time, as well as pressure in the hydraulic system and tensile force in the cable.

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