Shimmy in a nonlinear model of an aircraft nose landing gear with non-zero rake angle

Phanikrishna Thota, Bernd Krauskopf, Mark Lowenberg

This work concentrates on the lateral oscillations in vehicles, also called shimmy, with a particular emphasis on aircraft. A mathematical model of a nose landing gear is discussed with geometric detail that has been mostly neglected in the past research. Stability criteria for
the shimmy-free operation of the landing gear are derived using linear stability analysis. Nonlinear analysis is used not only to study the qualitative behaviour of the Hopf bifurcation but also to analyze the system beyond the Hopf bifurcation. The manuscript concludes with suggestions for future research.

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