A step towards safety: Material failure analysis of landing gear

The landing gear is a critical component of an aircraft as it makes sure that the aircraft returns to the ground safely after flight without any damage. Landing gear is designed to absorb the kinetic energy that is generated upon landing and to dissipate this energy safely throughout the airframe. Designing a landing gear is a difficult task which is further complicated if landing gear needs to be retracted. Major problems are faced because of the kinematics of the landing gear and also due to space constraints in case of retractable landing gears. During landing, the landing gears are subjected to several loads from several direction and often overloading occurs. Aircraft is one of the most complex machines made by man and failure of any one of its components can be deadly. But as other components of the aircraft the landing gears are also subjected to several types of vibrations and fatigue failure. Often structural failure in aircraft, occur due to fatigue cracking and the fatigue failures originate where the material is dynamically stressed the most. This paper gives a review on the research and development going on in the field of landing gears used for commercial, military and space applications. A stable and efficient landing gear can be manufactured, if its material failure is analyzed precisely.