Optimal Chassis Suspension Design for Towbarless Towing Vehicle for Aircraft Taxiing

The towbarless aircraft taxiing system (TLATS) consists of the towbarless towing vehicle (TLTV) and the aircraft, of which the nose wheel is lifted and fixed by the picking up and holding system of the TLTV. The aircraft is towed to the destination in a long distance with a high speed of about 40 km/h only driven by the TLTV, which has the advantages of efficiency and economy by comparing with the traditional towing operation at a low speed of 5 km/h and with a short towing distance of about 50 m. However, the increase of the towing velocity leads to an deteriorate vibration problem in terms of the uncomfortable of the driver and reduction of the structure safe life limit, due to the lack of the chassis suspension for the vibration isolation of the TLTV. Therefore, the air suspension is introduced to the TLTV to alleviate the vibration. The dynamic model of the TLATS with air suspensions is derived. The chassis bounce natural frequency is presented, and the initial stiffness and damping coefficients are determined. The parameters of the air spring, i.e., the initial pressure, volume, effective area under the working condition, are optimally designed. The ride performances of the TLATS with the air suspensions under the random road excitation are compared with those with coil spring suspension and without suspension. The simulation results show that the optimal air suspensions could alleviate the TLATS’ vibration during the high-velocity towing of the aircraft.