Study of Nonlinear Stiffness and Damping Effects on Shimmy and Flutter

What is it about?

This work deals with the fundamentally similar dynamic behavior of two apparently different aircraft systems, namely landing gears and all-movable control surfaces. By employing an novel and highly efficient computational method, we obtain insights into the nonlinear aspects of the shimmy and flutter instabilities exhibited by these systems. Real life examples are discussed and explained, namely the occurrence of shimmy in the F/A-18 aircraft and the Wright Air Development Center wind tunnel flutter test results for an all-movable horizontal tail with freeplay.

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