Frictionless contact of aircraft tires

A computational procedure for the solution of frictionless contact problems of spacecraft tires was developed using a two-dimensional laminated anisotropic shell theory incorporating the effects of variations in material and geometric parameters, transverse shear deformation, and geometric nonlinearities to model the nose-gear tire of a space shuttle. Numerical results are presented for the case when the nose-gear tire is subjected to inflation pressure and pressed against a rigid pavement. The results are compared with experimental results obtained at NASA Langley, demonstrating a high accuracy of the model and the effectiveness of the computational procedure.