Optimisation of shimmy suppression device in an aircraft main landing gear

Abstract

In earlier publications of landing gear shimmy analysis, efforts have concentrated on predicting the onset of shimmy instability and investigating how to stabilise shimmy-prone landing gears. Less attention has been given to the improvements of shimmy performance for a gear that is free from dynamic instability. This is the main interest of this work. We investigate the effectiveness of a linear passive mechanical device that consists of springs, dampers and inerters on suppressing landing gear shimmy oscillations. A linear model of a Fokker 100 main landing gear and two configurations of candidate shimmy suppression device have been presented. Considering the physical shimmy motions, time-domain optimisation of the parameters in the shimmy suppression devices, using a cost function of maximum amplitude of gear torsional-yaw motion, has been carried out. The performance advantage of a shimmy suppression device incorporating inerter has been presented.