Improved Aircraft Tire Life through Laboratory Tire Wear Testing and Computational Modeling

Aircraft tire wear is a complex phenomenon that depends on a multitude of different interdependent variables. Due to the multitude of variables, there is currently no qualification test or accurate method for predicting tire life. While improving tire life has shown to save as much as 14 million dollars over the lifetime of certain aircraft, the present United States Air Force (USAF) method for realizing that savings is an expensive and time intensive Life Cycle Cost (LCC) evaluation program. In an attempt to perform more predictive laboratory wear testing, the USAF commissioned a 168inch internal drum dynamometer (168i) designed specifically for aircraft tire wear testing. The 96 th Test Group, Aerospace Survivability and Safety Operating Location (96 TG/OL-AC), Landing Gear Test Facility’s (LGTF) 168i has demonstrated the ability to comparatively wear test tires; however, its predictive wear capabilities require further development. Results from these comparative wear tests have highlighted the possibility for generating simple tire wear predictive testing schemes based on tire, brake, and aircraft system level parameters. From these results, an initial predictive tire wear testing program is presented and discussed. To assist predictive laboratory testing, a Finite Element Method (FEM) computational model has also been introduced in an attempt to simulate an aircraft’s Missionized Profile (taxi, takeoff, and landing). These trends demonstrate that predictive tire wear testing on the 168i coupled with FEM computational modeling can be used to predict tire life before fielding the tire.