Landing gear optimization in unmanned aerial vehicles

Landing gear is one of the most important structural components in aircraft. While the landing gear carries the weight of the aircraft when in contact with the ground, it also dampens and reduces the additional loads that occur during take-off and landing. Many different types of landing gear can be used in unmanned aerial vehicles, depending on the needs. The most important parameter in landing gear design is the loads on the main and nose landing gear. In this thesis study, the design and structural analysis of a solid leaf spring landing gear for a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle was carried out. In this context, firstly the preliminary design of the nose and main landing gear was carried out. Von-Mises stresses and deformation values that occur against the loads on the solid model landing gear were found by means of a finite element program. Then, mass reduction was achieved by topology optimization for the solid leaf springs used in the landing gear and the design was updated according to the results. For the new design, Von-Mises stresses and deformation values were calculated using finite element analysis. Frequency modes were obtained by connecting the obtained values to modal analysis, which is a dynamic analysis. It has been confirmed that the safety values of the evaluated design are within the limits accepted for aviation.