An efficient multibody dynamic model of arresting cable systems based on ALE formulation

Arresting cable systems (ACS) are widely used in aircraft carriers to decelerate an aircraft with high landing velocity in a limited runway length. Considering the complexity of the arresting process, it is extremely challenging to accurately and efficiently predict system dynamic behaviors, such as the arresting distance of aircrafts. In this paper, a comprehensive multibody dynamic model of ACS is proposed, where Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) formulation is adopted to efficiently simulate the tailhook/pulley-cable moving contact in ACS. In our model, a moving fine mesh of the ALE cable, which tracks the real-time position of the tailhook, is used to accurately capture the contact behaviors between them, while evenly-distributed coarse meshes are used in non-contact areas, thereby greatly reducing DOFs and contact pairs. Additionally, the pulley joint is used to simulate the cable-sheave moving contact, where contact details are completely neglected and the ALE cable node is fixed to the dimensionless sheave point. Finally, the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are verified through three numerical tests with correlation to the conventional Lagrangian formulation.