Drop impact analysis of smart unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) landing gear and comparison with experimental data

The dynamic behavior of the landing gear is very important, because it absorbs kinetic energy of the vertical load and reduces aircraft impact at touchdown. In this study, drop impact analyses have been conducted for SUAV’s landing gear using the explicit finite element code LS‐DYNA®. The landing gear was modeled as a flexible body and the analyses were focused on the dynamic behavior of the shock absorber, the deformation of the tire, energy analysis and the reaction load on the impact surface. Experimental results were compared with the analytical results.