Vibration Qualification Campaign on Main Landing Gear System for High-Speed Compound Helicopter

Abstract

Vibrations in helicopters have strong implications for their performance and safety, leading to the increased fatigue of components and reduced operational efficiency. As helicopters are designed to land on several types of surfaces, the landing gear system dissipates the impact on the ground and maintains stability during landing and take-off. These vibrations can arise from a variety of sources, such as aerodynamic loads, mechanical imbalances, and engine instabilities. In the present work, the authors describe the vibration qualification process of the main landing gear tailored to fast helicopters within the Clean Sky 2 Racer program. The method entails devising preliminary load sets that deform the structure in its key excited mode shapes to assess stresses and address the experimental campaign. A full-scale prototype model is then tested for sine sweep and random vibrations as per the Airbus Helicopter requirements in order to reach the final qualification and acceptance stage. Although the discussion centers on a landing gear structure, the described process could be extended to other critical equipment as well.