Shimmy Dynamics Analysis of a Dual-Wheel Main Landing Gear Considering Side Stay Angular Coupling

Main landing gear shimmy is jointly affected by tire forces, structural elasticity, damping, and geometric coupling. To investigate the influence of side stay angular coupling on shimmy stability, this article establishes a shimmy dynamic model of a dual-wheel main landing gear considering side stay angular coupling. Numerical continuation bifurcation analysis, Hopf bifurcation frequency mapping, and local sensitivity analysis are then employed to study its influence mechanism on stability boundaries, dominant modes, and multistable behavior. The results show that the horizontal inclination angle of the side stay introduces additional structural coupling between strut torsion and longitudinal bending, causing the longitudinal motion to evolve from a passive response into an important mode participating in shimmy instability. A small horizontal inclination angle can induce the coexistence of multiple stable periodic responses, whereas a larger inclination angle changes the connectivity of Hopf bifurcation curves and forms a new instability branch involving longitudinal motion. Further analysis indicates that adjusting the orientation angle to make the local horizontal inclination angle approach zero can weaken the direct structural coupling between torsion and longitudinal motion and reduce the sensitivity of the longitudinal response to variations in the horizontal inclination angle. These results indicate that the angular design of the side stay should comprehensively consider the coupling effect between the horizontal inclination angle and the orientation angle, so as to avoid multistability and mode transition induced by the side stay angular arrangement.