Three-Dimensional Verification of an Axisymmetric Algorithm for Tire-Wheel Interface Load Recovery 941176

Knowledge of the tire-wheel interface pressure distribution is necessary for aircraft wheel design and analysis. A finite element code, ANTWIL, has been developed recently which makes tractable the determination of the tire-wheel interface loads from experimentally obtained strains. ANTWIL employs an asymmetrically loaded axisymmetric finite element model. This assumption is motivated by computational considerations. Herein three-dimensional finite element models of the F-16, Block 50, main landing gear wheel are developed using the commercial CAE Aries package. One of the models is a detailed representation of the actual wheel; the other is a similar three dimensional model but with the asymmetries removed. A comparison of strain responses from these models is used to validate the axisymmetric assumption on which the ANTWIL code is based. “Experimental” strains obtained from the three-dimensional analysis were used as input to ANTWIL to perform the load recovery. The accuracy of the load recovery and the computational efficiency of the approach are discussed.