Inerter-Based Configurations for Main-Landing-Gear Shimmy Suppression

The work reported in this paper concentrates on the possibility of suppressing shimmy oscillations of landing gear more effectively using a linear passive suppression device incorporating inerter. The inerter is a one-port mechanical device with the property that the applied force is proportional to the relative acceleration between its terminals. A linear model of a Fokker 100 aircraft main landing gear equipped with a shimmy-suppression device is presented. Time-domain optimizations of the shimmy-suppression device are carried out using cost functions of the maximum amplitude and the settling time of torsional-yaw motion. Applying two types of excitations that trigger the shimmy oscillations, the performance advantages of inerter-based configurations for suppressing shimmy of main landing gear, together with corresponding parameter values, are identified.