Modeling and braking analyses of longitudinal-vertical coupling towbarless aircraft taxiing system

Abstract

The variation of tire vertical load has effects on the vehicle braking performance, which may lead to the misjudgment of braking distance and increasement of the accident risks. In order to evaluate the braking distance of the towbarless aircraft taxiing system (TLATS) accurately, a longitudinal-vertical coupling model of the TLATS is established, in which the effects of the vertical vibration on braking dynamics is considered. An 11-degrees of freedom (DOF) dynamic model of the TLATS, which consists of the system longitudinal motion, vertical vibration, and an advanced Lugre tire model, is proposed. The tire vertical dynamic loads are obtained by calculating system vibration differential equations as the input for the Lugre tire model, in which an arbitrary pressure distribution function over the contact patch and load related parameters are used. The Lugre tire model parameters are identified based on the virtual experiment results in ADAMS/Car software through a multi-objective optimization (MOO) method. The proposed tire model is more accurate by comparing with the models using other pressure distribution functions. The advanced Lugre model is integrated into the longitudinal-vertical coupling dynamic model of the TLATS, and the fuzzy PID control method is used to achieve the optimal slip rate during the braking procedure. The tire friction and TLATS’s braking performances in terms of the slip rate, braking speed and braking distance are compared between the coupling and uncoupling models under different traction velocities and the road excitations when a same fuzzy control method is used for the system braking. The results show that the proposed longitudinal-vertical coupling TLATS dynamic model could assess the braking behaviors of the TLATS more accurately than the simplified uncoupling model, which could decrease the potential safety risk of the aircraft towing operation on the airport apron.