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Analysis of Plane Landing Gear
Project Type
Class Project for Dynamics I
Date
June 2021
Role
Mechanical Engineer
Location
University of Denver
Team Members
Andrea Francis, Ben Schwartz, Rory Taylor, and Patrick Miller
Goal: Approximate the landing gear of a plane as a spring-damper system. In this system, the goal was to determine the combination of spring and damper constants which results in the critical damping, and therefore, the smoothest landing of the plane. Was there a ratio that, within reasonable values, will always produce critical damping in a system?
Conclusion
From the analysis of the system, the combination of k and b values which most closely depicted critical damping occurred when k1 was equal to 70,000 kg/m and b was equal to 70,000 kg/m. This analysis has found this combination to yield the smoothest curve, seen in graph 4 of Attachment 2 in the Appendixes, this had a k:b ratio of 1:1. While this ratio yielded generally consistent results, it was found to be most effective at the previously specified values, with other 1:1 ratios producing slight oscillation before leveling out.
Lessons:
1. I was able to learn the complexity of modeling a system and analyzing its efficiency and performance in different conditions.
2. I was also able to learn how to simplify complex systems into simpler more understandable ones that can be analyzed.
