Structural Optimization of a Nose Landing Gear Considering Its Fatigue Life

The fatigue life of a nose landing gear is assessed to increase the fatigue life computing efficiency in the structural optimization cycles. The metamodels of the structural fatigue life have been researched systemically. Three kinds of metamodelswere compared: the polynomial response surfacemodel, the krigingmodel, and the radial basis function model constructed by the central composite design and the Latin hypercube design. It is found that the radial basis functionmodel constructed by the Latin hypercube has the highest fitting precision and higher fitting efficiency. The research results offer a guidance for selection and construction of the metamodel of structural fatigue life. Improved particle swarm optimization algorithm is implemented. As an example, the forward strut of one aircraft’s nose landing gear is optimized by using the improved particle swarm optimization algorithm.