Computational Methods for Frictionless Contact With Application to Space Shuttle Orbiter Nose-Gear Tires.
Abstract
A computational procedure is presented for the solution of frictionless contact problems of aircraft tires. The Space Shuttle nose-gear tire is modeled using a two-dimensional laminated anisotropic shell theory with the effects of variation in material and geometric parameters, transverse-shear deformation, and geometric nonlinearities included. The contact conditions are incorporated into the formulation by using a perturbed Lagrangian approach with the fundamental unknowns consisting of the stress resultants, the generalized displacements, and the Lagrange multipliers associated with the contact conditions. The elemental arrays are obtained by using a modified two-field, mixed variational principle. Numerical results are presented for the Space Shuttle nose-gear tire inflated and pressed against a flat plate. Comparison is made with experiments conducted at NASA Langley Research Center. The detailed information presented herein assists in gaining insight into the structural response of the tire. The numerical studies have demonstrated the high accuracy of the mixed formulation models and the effectiveness of the computational procedure, which combines both the geometrically nonlinear terms and the contact conditions in one iteration loop.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1991
- Accession Number
- ADA307695
Entities
People
- Ahmed K. Noor
- John A. Tanner
- Kyun O. Kim
- Martha P. Robinson
Organizations
- Langley Research Center