Development and validation of a tire model for a real time simulation of a helicopter traversing and manoeuvring on a ship flight deck

A transient tire model was developed to improve a simulation program, HeliMan, used to model the manoeuvring and traversing of a maritime helicopter on a ship flight deck. The nonlinear single contact patch transient tire model is used to simulate the tire behaviour. The nonlinear differential equation of the transient tire model is solved by obtaining the instantaneous relaxation length of the tire through the use of the steady state Magic Formula and Similarity Method tire models. The Magic Formula model was developed by matching empirical tire test results, collected as part of this project, to the curve fits of the model. The Similarity Method uses the Magic Formula model to produce a set of nominal conditions that are then adapted to changes made by normal force or frictional coefficient acting on the tire.; Tire tests were conducted using Carleton University's tire testing facility, which was retrofitted in order to test aircraft tires on the surface of a non-skid ship deck. Forces acting on a particular representative aircraft tire were collected as slip an gle, camber inclination, and normal force was varied. The resulting tire model was adapted to match the performance of a Seahawk helicopter manoeuvring and traversing on a ship flight deck under the control of the Aircraft/Ship Integrated Secure and Traverse (ASIST) system. The simulation was validated by comparing the results to those obtained through full-scale validation tests. The validation tests consisted of comparing simulation results with data collected using a Dead Load Test Vehicle (DLTV) simulating a helicopter, undergoing several manoeuvres under the control of the ASIST aircraft handling system.; The tire model unproved the tire force generation of the HeliMan simulation and captured the underlying dynamics of the helicopter manoeuvring and traversing on a ship flight deck. A further key benefit of the tire model is its inherent flexibility in terms of applying it to different aircraft tires without the necessity for extensive tire testing each time a different tire design must be simulated.