Stress Fatigue Life Optimisation of an Airplane Landing Gear Lever Arm Using Ansys nCode

In this paper the authors show a way to optimise the shape of an airplane landing gear lever arm in order to increase the confidence that its behaviour is improved in terms of life. The main tool to be used under Ansys Workbench is the optimisation via Response surface module. Ansys software has its own fatigue and life calculation module. The incorporation of nCode inside Ansys Workbench has provided a larger palette of options and resources for Life evaluation of a wider class of problems. As was demonstrated the nCode module of Ansys is more accurate in terms of life calculation as the native Ansys fatigue module can predict, and that is why the nCode is more suitable to be used for optimisation simulations. In the simulation using nCode under Ansys Workbench, the authors concluded that the optimised geometry shows a bigger life expectancy as the initial model. This way of dealing with the fatigue issues is certainly due to improve the safety of the sensitive devices as the landing gear of an airplane.