Optimization of powered wheels for commercial aircraft and design of test scheme

Abstract

Electric landing gear drives equipped with traction motors are able to power the wheels of single-aisle commercial aircraft to provide the capability of taxiing on the ground. The powered wheels are utilized to solve the problems of low engine efficiency, high fuel consumption and high pollution of the aircraft during the taxiing process. The powered wheel electric drive system consists of an electric traction motor, a set of planetary gear assembly, and a wheel. This paper optimizes the parameters of the planetary gear assembly of the electric drive system to improve the outputted torque of the powered wheel. After that, two test schemes are designed for the powered wheel electric drive system to measure its torque. These two test schemes use moment of inertia and resistance loading to replace the actual vertical load of the aircraft applied on the powered wheel during the taxiing process. The first scheme uses the mass block to simulate the mass of the general aircraft, whereas the second scheme uses a flywheel with a variable moment of inertia to simulate the mass of large commercial aircraft.