The goal of this project is to understand the phenomenon of main landing gear shimmy. Oscillations always occur on the main gears at the point of touchdown, where this behaviour is dependant on the gear configuration, size of the aircraft, approach speed, attitude of the aircraft, and several other parameters. An understanding of the most sensitive parameters that affect shimmy will enable companies such as Airbus to design more robust and safer landing gears.

Project staff and support

Chris Howcroft (Postgraduate Associate, Bristol)
Bernd Krauskopf (Academic supervisor, Bristol)
Mark Lowenberg (Academic co-supervisor, Bristol)
Simon Coggon (Industrial supervisor, Airbus)
Caroline Edwards (Technology Translator, Industrial Mathematics KTN)

This project is being carried out at Bristol, in conjunction with Airbus Operations. It is supported by an EPSRC industrial CASE award. Start date: October 2009; duration: 3.5 years.