DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF LANDING GEAR LUG ATTACHMENT BRACKET FOR SMALL TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT

Landing gear is one of the primary structural components of the airframe. Landing gear enables the airplane to take off and land on ground. The most common type being tri-cycle arrangement with a nose landing gear and a main landing gear. Impact loads during landing are the main design loads for the landing gear design. Landing gears should also be checked for various other ground handling loads as specified in the regulatory requirements. Lugs are the primary structural elements in airframe structure that are widely used in connecting different components of the airframe. Failure of lug may lead to the catastrophic failure of the whole structure. Stress analysis of the landing gear lug attachment bracket is carried out and maximum tensile stress is identified at one of the lug-holes. FEM approach is followed for the stress analysis of the landing gear lug attachment bracket. A validation for FEM approach is carried out by considering a plate with a circular hole. The lug joints made up of steel and aluminum material is analyzed using MSC Patran and Nastran, the stress contour is plotted and maximum stress is found below the stress limit thus the design is safe and also the deformation contour is plotted, deformation is found below the safe limit thus the design is safe. Then the results of analytical calculations are compared with results of finite element analysis. Hence the validation is done