Passive vibration suppression devices known as shimmy dampers are vital in maintaining stability and safety of certain landing gears. Yet, systematic design, performance analysis, and optimization of such devices are rarely discussed in the literature. This paper presents structural design optimization of a novel shimmy damper for nose landing gears. This new design is a multifunctional mechanism integrating the shimmy damper into the torque link system of the nose landing gear. It features symmetric load distribution, and it can be tailored to existing nose landing gears. Here, the damper design concept is developed in the structural sense and optimized for the nose landing gear of a Piper Cheyenne aircraft. Dynamic loads from a representative shimmy scenario are employed in the analysis and design procedures. Utilizing equivalent static load method, topology optimization with transient loads is performed to obtain optimal material distribution satisfying the objective function and constraints. Flexible multibody dynamics analysis based on a high-fidelity finite element model is utilized in the analysis of design candidates and for validating the final design. To ensure adequate strength under the dynamic torque loads and to offer sufficient damping needed for stabilizing the nose landing gear, a three-piece torque link mechanism emerged through multiple design iterations guided by the topology optimization. Using numerical simulations, the final design is shown to satisfy the strength requirement while providing sufficient damper stroke. The results from the present study signal a vast potential in improving shimmy mitigation strategies by eliminating the need for costly redesigns of landing gears susceptible to shimmy.

被称为摆振阻尼器的被动振动抑制装置对于保持某些起落架的稳定性和安全性至关重要。然而，文献中很少讨论这种设备的系统设计，性能分析和优化。本文介绍了一种用于前起落架的新型摆振阻尼器的结构设计优化。这种新设计是一种多功能机构，将摆线阻尼器集成到前起落架的扭矩连杆系统中。它具有对称的载荷分布，并且可以针对现有的前起落架进行定制。在此，减振器设计概念是在结构上发展起来的，并针对Piper Cheyenne飞机的前起落架进行了优化。在分析和设计过程中采用了具有代表性的摆振场景的动态载荷。利用等效静载荷法，对瞬态载荷进行拓扑优化，以获得满足目标函数和约束条件的最优材料分布。基于高保真有限元模型的灵活多体动力学分析被用于设计候选者的分析和最终设计的验证。为了确保在动态扭矩负载下具有足够的强度，并提供稳定前叉起落架所需的足够阻尼，在拓扑优化的指导下，通过多次设计迭代，出现了三件式扭矩连杆机构。通过数值模拟，最终设计显示出能够满足强度要求，同时提供了足够的阻尼器行程。