• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.236-241
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• 2011

An active trailing-edge flap blade named as Seoul National University Flap (SNUF) blade is designed for reducing helicopter vibratory loads and the relevant aeroacoustic noise. Unlike the conventional rotor control, which is restricted to 1/rev frequency, an active control device like the present trailing-edge flap is capable of actuating each individual blade at higher harmonic frequencies i.e., higher harmonic control (HHC) of rotor. The proposed blade is a small scale blade and rotates at higher RPM. The flap actuation components are located inside the blade and additional structures are included for reinforcement. Initially, the blade cross-section design is determined. The aerodynamic loads are predicted using a comprehensive rotorcraft analysis code. The structural integrity of the active blade is verified using a stress-strain recovery analysis.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.18-33
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• 2008

This paper presents design optimization of a new Active Twist Rotor (ATR) blade and conducts its aeroelastic analysis in forward flight condition. In order to improve a twist actuation performance, the present ATR blade utilizes a single crystal piezoelectric fiber composite actuator and the blade cross-sectional layout is designed through an optimization procedure. The single crystal piezoelectric fiber composite actuator has excellent piezoelectric strain performance when compared with the previous piezoelectric fiber composites such as Active Fiber Composites (AFC) and Macro Fiber Composites (MFC). Further design optimization gives a cross-sectional layout that maximizes the static twist actuation while satisfying various blade design requirements. After the design optimization is completed successfully, an aeroelastic analysis of the present ATR blade in forward flight is conducted to confirm the efficiency in reducing the vibratory loads at both fixed- and rotating-systems. Numerical simulation shows that the present ATR blade utilizing single crystal piezoelectric fiber composites may reduce the vibratory loads significantly even with much lower input-voltage when compared with that used in the previous ATR blade. However, for an application of the present single crystal piezoelectric actuator to a full scaled rotor blade, several issues exist. Difficulty of manufacturing in a large size and severe brittleness in its material characteristics will need to be examined.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.326-331
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• 2007

This paper conducts a vibratory loads reduction analysis of an Advanced Active Trailing-edge Flap (AATF) blade utilizing single crystal piezoelectric actuators. For an AATF blade, a new L-L piezostack actuator using single crystal PMN-PT materials is designed. The AATF blade is designed to have similar characteristics to the Advanced Active Twist Rotor (AATR) blade. The active trailingedge flap is assumed to be 20% of the blade span and 15% of the chord, located at 75% of the blade radius. In order to conduct the vibratory loads reduction analysis of the AATF blade in forward flight, DYMORE, a multi-body dynamics analysis code, is used. The simulation result shows that the hub vibratory loads may be reduced by approximately 89% even with a much lower input-voltage when comparing with the other active rotor systems.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.499-505
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• 2012

Vibratory loads imposed by the rotating blade upon the fuselage has been one of major obstacles in rotorcrafts. A new concept of rotor blade is currently developed to adopt an Active Trailing-edge Flap (ATF) to alleviate such obstacles. The flap is mounted at 65~85% spanwise location from the rotor hub. The nominal rotational speed of the blade is as high as 1,528 RPM, to match the required tip Mach number. Structural integrity is one of the important design aspects to be maintained and monitored in this special type of rotor. This is due to that many detailed components, which drive the flap, are inserted inside the rotating blade. To conduct its structural design and analysis, CAMRAD-II and the one-dimensional beam analysis are used. At the same time, three-dimensional finite element analysis are also used, such as MSC. PATRAN/NASTRAN, in order to analyze the details of the present active blade. As a result, comparable characteristics for the present rotor are predicted by both approaches.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.492-497
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• 2011

Helicopter uses a rotor system to generate lift, thrust and forces, and its aerodynamic environment is generally complex. Unsteady aerodynamic environment arises such as blade vortex interaction. This unsteady aerodynamic environment induces vibratory aerodynamic loads and high aeroacoustic noise. Those are at N times the rotor blade revolutions (N/rev). But conventional rotor control system composed of pitch links and swash plate is not capable of adjusting such vibratory loads because its control is restricted to 1/rev. Many active control methodologies have been examined to alleviate the problem. The blade using active control device manipulates the blade pitch angle at arbitrary frequencies. In this paper, Active Trailing-edge Flap blade, which is one of the active control methods, is designed to modify the unsteady aerodynamic loads. Active Trailing-edge Flap blade uses a trailing edge flap manipulated by an actuator to change camber of the airfoil. Piezoelectric actuators are installed inside the blade to manipulate the trailing edge flap.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.347-352
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• 2013

Seoul National University Flap (SNUF) blade is a small-scaled rotor blade incorporating a small trailing-edge flap control surface driven by piezoelectric actuators at higher harmonics for vibration attenuation. Initially, the blade was designed using two-dimensional cross-section analysis and a geometrically exact one-dimensional beam analysis, and material configuration was finalized. Flap deflection angle of ${\pm}45^{\circ}$ was established as the criterion for better vibration reduction performance based on an earlier simulation. Flap linkage mechanism design is carried out and static bench tests are conducted to verify the flap actuation mechanism performance. Different versions of test beds are developed and tested with the flap and chosen APA 200M piezoelectric actuators. Through significant improvements, a maximum deflection of ${\pm}3.7^{\circ}$ was achieved. High frequency experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance and transfer function of the test bed is determined experimentally. As the static tests are almost completed, rotor power required for testing the blade in whirl tower (centrifugal environment) is calculated and further preparations are under way.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.85-92
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• 2007

This paper presents a design optimization of a new Advanced Active Blade Twist (AATR-II) blade incorporating single crystal Macro Fiber Composites (MFC) and conducts vibratory loads reduction analysis using an obtained optimal blade configuration. Due to the high actuation performance of the single crystal MFC, the AATR blade may reduce the helicopter vibration more efficiently even with a lower input-voltage as compared with the previous ATR blades. The design optimization provides the optimal cross-sectional configuration to maximize the tip twist actuation when a certain input-voltage is given. In order to maintain the properties of the original ATR blade, various constraints and bounds are considered for the design variables selected. After the design optimization is completed successfully, vibratory load reduction analysis of the optimized AATR-II blade in forward flight condition is conducted. The numerical result shows that the hub vibratory loads are reduced significantly although 20% input-voltage of the original ATR blade is used.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.496-502
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• 2007

In the present paper, a new version of DYMORE, which is an analysis to solve a nonlinear multi-body dynamics problem, is used to simulate an Individual Blade Control (IBC) algorithm in order to reduce vibration in helicopter rotors. The Active Twist Rotor (ATR), in which Active Fiber Composites (AFC) are embedded, is utilized for IBC. The main purpose of the present investigation is to compare the analytical results with experiments and previous version of DYMORE. The experiments are performed at NASA Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel. According to the present result, it is observed that the correlation regarding the vibratory loads is improved.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3347-3352
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• 2007

This paper describes a research for the performance improvement of the straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine. To improve the performance of VAWT, the individual blade pitch control method is adopted. For the wind turbine, CFD analysis is carried out by changing blade pitch angle according to the change of wind speed and wind direction. By this method, capacity and power efficiency of VAWT are obtained according to the wind speed and rotating of rotor, and could predict the overall performance of VAWT. It was manufactured to verify performance of the experimental system that consists of rotor including four blades and base. Furthermore, torque sensor and power generator were installed. Also, active controller which can change the pitch angle of the individual blade according to the wind speed and direction was used.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.115-121
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• 2007

The aeroelastic analysis of rotor blades with trailing edge flaps, focused on reducing vibration while minimizing control effort, are investigated using large deflection-type beam theory in forward flight. The rotor blade aerodynamic forces are calculated using two-dimensional quasi-steady strip theory. For the analysis of forward flight, the nonlinear periodic blade steady response is obtained by integrating the full finite element equation in time through a coupled trim procedure with a vehicle trim. The objective function, which includes vibratory hub loads and active flap control inputs, is minimized by an optimal control process. Numerical simulations are performed for the steady-state forward flight of various advance ratios. Also, numerical results of the steady blade and flap deflections, and the vibratory hub loads are presented for various advance ratios and are compared with the previously published analysis results obtained from modal analysis based on a moderate deflection-type beam theory.