Determining Wheel Forces and Moments on Aircraft Landing Gear with a Dynamometer Sensor

Abstract

This paper describes airfield measurement of forces and moments that act on a landing gear wheel. For the measurement, a wheel force sensor was used. The sensor was designed and built based on strain gage technology and was embedded in the left landing gear wheel of a test aircraft. The sensor is capable of measuring simultaneously three perpendicular forces and three moments and sends data to a handheld device wirelessly. For the airfield tests, the sensor was installed on a PZL 104 Wilga 35A multipurpose aircraft. The aircraft was towed at a “marching man” speed and the measurements were performed at three driving modes: Free rolling, braking, and turning. The paper contains results obtained in the field measurements performed on a grassy runway of the Rzeszów Jasionka Aerodrome, Poland. Rolling resistance of aircraft tire, braking friction, as well as aligning moment were analyzed and discussed with respect to surface conditions.