Air and ground resonance of helicopters with elastically tailored composite rotor blades

Edward C. Smith, Inderjit Chopra

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

The aeromechanical stability, including air resonance in hover, air resonance in forward flight, and ground resonance, of a helicopter with elastically tailored composite rotor blades is investigated. Five soft-inplane hingeless rotor configurations, featuring elastic pitch-lag, pitch-flap and extension-torsion couplings, are analyzed. Elastic couplings introduced through tailored composite blade spars can have a powerful effect on both air and ground resonance behavior. Elastic pitch-flap couplings (positive and negative) strongly affect body, rotor and dynamic inflow modes. Air resonance stability is diminished by elastic pitch-flap couplings in hover and forward flight. Negative pitch-lag elastic coupling has a stabilizing effect on the regressive lag mode in hover and forward flight. The negative pitch-lag coupling has a detrimental effect on ground resonance stability. Extension-torsion elastic coupling (blade pitch decreases due to tension) decreases regressive lag mode stability in both airborne and ground contact conditions. Increasing thrust levels has a beneficial influence on ground resonance stability for rotors with pitch-flap and extension-torsion coupling and is only marginally effective in improving stability of rotors with pitch-lag coupling.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)50-61
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of the American Helicopter Society
Volume38
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1993

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Materials Science
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

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