A method for determining the horizontal impact load based on the rotational speed of the aircraft's wheel in a landing gear drop test

The maximum horizontal impact load experienced by an aircraft's landing gear wheel during landing is an important parameter in the landing gear's safety design and performance analysis. Using a noncontact photoelectric testing method, this paper experimentally obtained the temporally varying data of the instantaneous rotational speed for an aircraft wheel at the instant of its contact with the test platform. Moreover, the kinetic relationship between the transient rotational speed of the aircraft's wheel and the horizontal impact force was established. According to the temporally varying data measured from the transient rotational speed of the aircraft's wheel, the maximum horizontal impact load at the instant the aircraft contacted the platform was calculated. To verify the accuracy of this method in which changes in rotational speed of the aircraft's wheel determine the horizontal impact load, verification equipment without lateral constrains was designed and used for testing. The experimental results showed that the horizontal impact load determined based on the transient rotational speed of the aircraft's wheel are consistent with the results obtained using direct measurements obtained from custom-made equipment free of lateral constrains. This paper provides a new experimental method for measuring the horizontal impact load on the aircraft's wheel.