Designing and Analysis of Mild Steel Landing Gear Strut for a 3-Ton Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Fixed tricycle landing gear for 3-ton Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with a Main Landing Gear (MLG) as a spring-leaf structure is designed. The design process is divided into specific phases: design requirements, preliminary design, detailed design, and testing. Ground load conditions are calculated in the initial design phase. The modeling begins by adding different geometries of clamping the primary strut with mild steel as the material. It is observed that the design is notwithstanding the load obtained from the ground calculations. The design is modified with clamps and connecting rods to meet the expected maximum stress during landing conditions, reducing the working stresses on the strut considerably. The stress profiles obtained from the study show that for all the models, the Mises stress observed is within the allowable stress limit. In contrast, the displacement observed is not in the allowable range, which may lead to structural damage due to a lack of shock absorption during landing.