Modeling of Aircraft Arresting Gear System by Multibody Dynamics Approach and Co-Simulation of Multibody Dynamics With Hydraulic System Using Adams and Easy5

Abstract

Arresting gear system is a system used to decelerate and arrest the aircraft as it lands on the aircraft carrier. Aircraft with a mass of 10–11 tons traveling at a speed of 250–260 km/hr has to come to rest within a span of 90 m as it lands on the aircraft carriers flight deck. The tail hook of the aircraft landing on the deck of aircraft carrier engages on one of the four deck pendants. The force developed due to the forward motion of the aircraft landing on the deck is transferred to the aircraft recovery equipment or the hydraulic system under the deck through the purchase cable, which is used to absorb the kinetic energy developed by landing the aircraft. The arresting gear system above the deck of cable and pulley arrangement is modeled using cable module of MSC ADAMS. Aircraft recovery equipment below the deck is modeled with a hydraulic system using EASY5. Co-simulation of ADAMS and EASY5 is performed to obtain the characteristics of the arresting gear system. The aircraft deceleration or arrestment occurs mainly from the arresting engine placed below the deck. The coupling between the arresting engine below the aircraft carrier deck and arresting cable above the deck was a challenging task. The coupling of arresting cable and hydraulics control systems modeled using multibody dynamics and system-level design is achieved by co-simulation of both the systems using multibody dynamics tool (ADAMS) and hydraulics tool (EASY5—system-level control design).