Aircraft Hydroplaning Tire Tester (In Partnership with the FAA)

Project Date: 2019-2022
Project Roles/Leadership: Lead Mechanical Designer


Project Abstract: To develop a testing system to assess the effects of hydroplaning on a scaled down aircraft tire, with an emphasis on testing new runway groove patterns. The system is modular, allowing for easy swapping of track pieces alongside different aircraft tire or sensor packages.

Objective Requirements: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requested that we design a testing rig to analyze the effects of different tire designs on airplane landing gear performance, specifically regarding hydroplaning. The objective of this machine is to determine the most efficient and safest tire design for airplane landing gear. It should be designed as a small-scale test for airplane landing gear, allowing for testing of smaller, less expensive parts and saving time in the testing process. The machine should be capable of continuous operation for several minutes to gather a significant amount of data, reducing outliers and random effects from trials. It should accurately simulate the scaled-down loading conditions of a plane during landing, including speed and weight. The machine should also simulate various runway conditions, including weather conditions or different grooves in the runway itself. The rig should gather load sensor data as well as visual data during operation to provide all necessary information to determine both optimal groove patterns on the landing gear and potentially on the runway itself.

Design Overview: The system aims to simulate aircraft landing gear during braking. To achieve this, the system rotates a wheel carriage to a top speed of 10 m/s or 22 mph and maintains this speed on a wet test platform to continuously collect data. The initial design involved a linear treadmill-style track, which proved less feasible due to various design constraints. One significant limitation was the inability to accurately simulate acceleration on the wheel carriage without constantly resetting the system. Instead, a circular track design was chosen, allowing the wheel carriage to be rotated to achieve a tangential velocity of 10 m/s. The circular configuration also allows for a more compact system without sacrificing simulation accuracy or measurements. The final design features a circular track weighing approximately 1600 lbs and spanning approximately 13 feet in diameter. At the center of the frame, an electric motor spins an arm spanning approximately 6 feet long at close to 100 rpm. Attached to the arm is a custom-built wheel carriage containing a wheel assembly and a pneumatic loading system simulating the weight of a scaled-down aircraft. The track consists of 12 removable acrylic pieces, clear to allow for a camera system beneath the track to gather additional data. These pieces are removable for easy swapping to analyze hydroplaning effects with various runway groove designs. Water sprinklers are distributed along the track to simulate rainy conditions, with 4 drainage ports dispersed to clear water efficiently. The primary data collection sensors are 6-DOF load cells, collecting reaction forces to measure the force applied by the pneumatic loading system to the wheel assembly, and a load cell on the brake caliper to measure braking forces. The entire system is scaled down by a factor of 1000:1, thus a miniature aircraft tire was chosen. The wheel is loaded proportionally using a pneumatic cylinder capable of pressing down with over 350 lbf to simulate the weight of an aircraft during landing. To capture the fluid dynamics of water interacting with the tire, a camera system is assembled on a quarter of the track on a railed system capable of following the wheel and capturing footage as it runs. The combined system is modular and can be fitted with different wheel sizes, operating speeds, and water depths to measure and collect data relevant to the experiment.

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