ALE Model: Air Cushion Impact Characteristics of Seaplane Landing Application

Seaplane landing is a strong nonlinear gas-liquid-solid multiphase coupling problem, and the coupling impact characteristics of air cushion are very complicated, and it is difficult to maintain the stability of the air-frame. In this paper, The ALE method is used to study the landing of seaplane at different initial attitude angles and velocities. Firstly, a comparative study of the structure entry model and the air cushion effect model of flat impact water surface is conducted to verify the reliability of the numerical model in this paper, and the influence of the velocity, the water shape and the air cushion are accurately analyzed. Then, a seaplane landing is systematically studied, and the vertical acceleration, attitude angle, aircraft impact force and flow field distribution are analyzed. The results show that the air cushion has a great influence on the landing of seaplane. The smaller the initial horizontal velocity, the more obvious the cushioning effect of the air cushion. Cavitation causes a secondary impact on the tail and produces a pressure value exceeding the initial value, which may cause damage to the aircraft structure. The air cushion has a buffering effect on the seaplane, the pitch angle increases at a slower rate and the pressure value at the monitoring point decreases. The larger the initial attitude angle, the more significant the air cushion. By analyzing the landing rules of seaplane, the range of speed and attitude angle suitable for seaplane takeoff and landing process is given. The results of this paper can provide theoretical guidance for the stability design of seaplane takeoff and landing process.

@article{Zhang2025,
  title     = {ALE Model: Air Cushion Impact Characteristics of Seaplane Landing Application},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
  volume    = {16},
  number    = {2},
  year      = {2025},
  publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
  author    = {Yunsong Zhang and Ruiyou Li Shi and Bo Gao and Changxun Song and Zhengzhou Zhang},
  doi       = {10.14569/IJACSA.2025.01602104},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2025.01602104}
}