Reducing temperature, drag load and wear during aircraft tyre spin-up

Abstract

Purpose Due to the static condition of the wheels at touchdown, they skid on the runway, which may cause the tyres to burn and wear. This phenomenon occurs in a fraction of a second, known as the spin-up period. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new strategy to reduce the horizontal force, tyre temperature and wear during the spin-up period. Design/methodology/approach First, the dynamics of two different phases of landing, namely, spin-up and breaking phases, are reviewed. Second, a strategy to prevent excessive temperature and wear of the tyre is presented. Findings It is found that using a lubricant and coolant, such as water, at the spin-up stretch of the runway is a simple and practical solution to prevent excessive temperature and wear of the tyre. It is revealed that, despite increasing the spin-up period, the rise of the tyre temperature is eliminated and the material properties are preserved for effective braking. A rough quantitative analysis demonstrates that the wetting of tyres in the spin-up phase decreases the loads and tyre wear effectively. Practical implications Wetting the touchdown region of the runway without significant areas of standing water is the most practical strategy with the technology available today. Originality/value A new strategy is presented for landing with reduced tyre wear. It is the hope that this paper can inspire continuous efforts to realize the implementation of the strategy.

Conceptual design of a new experimental setup to simulate aircraft tyre spin-up dynamics

“…During touchdown, the pilot interaction balances the aerodynamic lift and weight of the aircraft, and consequently, the touchdown takes with constant vertical velocity or sink rate (Padovan, 1991). As soon as the spin-up is finished, the spoilers are deployed, and the weight of the aircraft is gradually transferred to the wheels (Mahjouri et al , 2022). Therefore, the governing vertical tyre-suspension-aircraft equations take the following form: where m a represents the aircraft mass share on each tyre, m t is the mass of a tyre and its rim, k s is the stiffness of landing gear suspension associated to each wheel, k t is the tyre stiffness, c s is the damping coefficient of the landing gear’s shock absorber and c t is the damping coefficient of each tyre.…”

“…During touchdown, the pilot interaction balances the aerodynamic lift and weight of the aircraft, and consequently, the touchdown takes with constant vertical velocity or sink rate (Padovan, 1991). As soon as the spin-up is finished, the spoilers are deployed, and the weight of the aircraft is gradually transferred to the wheels (Mahjouri et al, 2022). Therefore, the governing vertical tyre-suspension-aircraft equations take the following form:…”

“…Therefore, only a small number of articles have been published on the modelling of spin-up dynamics, where each of them has its own limitations and should be verified experimentally (Padovan et al , 1991; Alroqi et al , 2017). Recently, based on wet landing during the spin-up period, the authors (Mahjouri et al , 2022) proposed a new strategy to reduce tyre temperature and ground loads. They claimed that reducing the coefficient of friction during the tyre spin-up reduces the ground horizontal drag force, resulting in increased fatigue life and improved the frequency response of the landing mechanism (Chaudhary, 2021).…”

Energy Harvesting Frictionless Brakes for Short-Haul Aircraft: Thermal and Electromagnetic Feasibility of an Axial-Flux Machine for a Landing Gear Drive System

“…The substitution would considerably reduce overhaul costs of landing gear components because electric machines offer longevity in contrast to friction brakes. Finally, the driven-wheels that are continuously coupled to power components would enable wheels pre-spinning prior to touchdown [7]. Thanks to high electric power output in motoring mode, they would aid in takeoff, which would lead to further fuel savings.…”