Beam deflection of composite landing gear
Beam deflection of composite landing gear
(OP)
Hello,
Im looking to see if anyone has any insight on measuring the beam deflection of of a composite beam for the main landing gear of a UAV (during a landing event). The aircraft weighs roughly 350 lbs and incorporates a wish bone style rigid main gear which is made from a carbon composite.
Ideally i would like to setup something up in such a way that I could get both the left and right independently. My initial thoughts were to use a piezoelectric strip on each leg similar to a lab I performed in school but I have forgotten how to accurately do that. Am I on the right path, have any how tos on how to setup a piezoelectric system or know of a better way to accomplish what Im looking for?
Any help is much appreciated!
Thanks!
Im looking to see if anyone has any insight on measuring the beam deflection of of a composite beam for the main landing gear of a UAV (during a landing event). The aircraft weighs roughly 350 lbs and incorporates a wish bone style rigid main gear which is made from a carbon composite.
Ideally i would like to setup something up in such a way that I could get both the left and right independently. My initial thoughts were to use a piezoelectric strip on each leg similar to a lab I performed in school but I have forgotten how to accurately do that. Am I on the right path, have any how tos on how to setup a piezoelectric system or know of a better way to accomplish what Im looking for?
Any help is much appreciated!
Thanks!





RE: Beam deflection of composite landing gear
Do you have somewhere you can stow data acquisition gear?
RE: Beam deflection of composite landing gear
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Beam deflection of composite landing gear
RE: Beam deflection of composite landing gear
Print out the max displacement video frame.
Get out the ruler.
RE: Beam deflection of composite landing gear
won't work, unless you do a lot of work. Even then, it won't work.
Stringpots are the way we do it, for most suspension work, and cameras are the we way do it for crash. We also use frangible (like it!) foam or modelling clay to work out how close things are to touching.
Cheers
Greg Locock
SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Beam deflection of composite landing gear
Some updates to the problem though
beam is aluminum 6061-t6
ideally i would prefer a portable solution something that I could mount to the aircraft and fly with.
There are 4 places on the beam that I am really interested in observing the stress at, so ideally i would like it if I could make a device using those thin film strain gauges I would prefer too. I found an all in one package that was pretty small in size but the cost is damn near 40K and emits RF signals, that will never get approved.
I remember doing a lab like this in school that could not have cost more than $100 to build. Just some resistors, wire, and a dc power supply. Relative error was around 3-4%.
RE: Beam deflection of composite landing gear