• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.539-547
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• 2021

Helicopter rotor blade is required to be designed by considering the interacting effects among aerodynamics, flexibility, and controllability. The reverse design allows the structural components to have common characteristics by using the configuration numerics and experimental results. This paper aims to design the composite rotor blade which will feature common characteristics with that of BO-105. The present engineering design procedure is done by dividing the rotor blade into a few sections and composite laminates across the cross section. For each section, variational asymptotic beam sectional analysis (VABS) program is used to evaluate its flapwise, lagwise, and torsion stiffnesses to have discrepancy smaller than certain tolerance. Finally, CAMRAD II is used to predict the stress acting on the rotor blade during the specific flight condition and to check whether the present deign is structurally valid.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.181-186
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• 2009

The objective of this study is ensuring safety of cabin when the blade impacts into a obstacle by verifying safety of the rotor mast and the transmission using impact loads calculated from the simulation. The rotor mast shall not fail and the transmission shall not be displaced into occupiable space when the main rotor composite blade impact into a 8 inch rigid cylinder in diameter on the outer 10% of the blade at operational rotor speed. To calculate the reaction loads at the spherical bearing and lead-lag damper, blade impact analysis was performed with FE model consist of composite blade, tree(or rigid cylinder) using elastic-plastic with damage material and several contact surfaces which were created to describe a progress of actual failure. Also, the reaction loads were investigated in change of blade rotation speed and pitch angle.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.512-521
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• 2002

The flap-lag-torsion coupled aeroelastic behavior of a hingeless rotor blade with composite flexures in hovering flight has been investigated by using the finite element method. The quasisteady strip theory with dynamic inflow effects is used to obtain the aerodynamic loads acting on the blade. The governing differential equations of motion undergoing moderately large displacements and rotations are derived using the Hamilton's principle. The flexures used in the present model are composed of two composite plates which are rigidly attached together. The lead-lag flexure is located inboard of the flap flexure. A mixed warping model that combines the St. Versant torsion and the Vlasov torsion is developed to describe the twist behavior of the composite flexure. Numerical simulations are carried out to correlate the present results with experimental test data and also to identify the effects of structural couplings of the composite flexures on the aeroelastic stability of the blade. The prediction results agree well with other experimental data. The effects of elastic couplings such as pitch-flap, pitch-lag, and flap-lag couplings on the stability behavior of the composite blades are also investigated.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.734-740
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• 2004

In this work, the effect of composite couplings and mass distributions on hub loads of a hingeless rotor in forward flight is investigated. The hingeless composite rotor is idealized as a laminated thin-walled box-beam. The nonclassical effects such as transverse shear and torsion warping are considered In the structural formulation. The nonlinear differential equations of motion are obtained by applying Hamilton’s principle. The blade responses and hub loads are calculated using a finite element formulation both in space and time. The aerodynamic forces acting on the blade are calculated using the quasi-steady strip theory. The theory includes the effects of reversed flow and compressibility. The magnitude of elastic couplings obtained by MSC/NASTRAN is compared with the classical pitch-flap($\delta$$_3$) coupling. It Is observed that the elastic couplings and mass distributions of the blade have a substantial effect on the behavior of $N_{b}$ /rev hub loads. About 40％ hub loads is reduced by tailoring or redistributing the structural properties of the blade.e.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.310-315
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• 2003

This paper described that rotating test and fatigue test of a small-scale hingeless hub system with composite rectangular blades. Generally Rotating stability and fatigue test technique is one of Key-technology on test and evaluation for helicopter rotor system Rotating test of hingeless rotor system was achieved by means of rotor vibration characteristic and aeroelastic stability test GSRTS, equipped with hydraulic actuator and 6-component rotating balance was used to test hingeless rotor system especially for an observation of blade motion including flawing, lagging and feathering. Rotating test was done in hover and forward flight condition. Small-scaled blade fatigue test condition was determined by blade load analysis with the reference table of composite materials(S-N curve). Fatigue test bench was developed for the estimation of blade fatigue life, and tested its characteristic.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.33-44
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• 2003

This paper describes the design and analysis technology of composite flexure and composite paddle-type blade which are all key technologies on hingeless rotor system. Through replacing the existing metal or engineering plastic flexure part with composite part, Several required structural analysis were accomplished, which are static analysis by using NASTRAN and dynamic analysis by using FLIGHTLAB. The dynamic characteristics of composite hingeless hub attached with paddle-type blade was also investigated. Further more, small-scaled paddle-type blade was designed using froude scaled properties of existing full size blade. Through this design procedure of composite paddle-type blade, the structural design method was achieved. These results will be applied to accomplishing current project named as "the development of next-generation helicopter rotor system."

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.275-283
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• 2013

In this paper, the structural optimum design method of composite rotor blade cross-section was investigated with the genetic algorithm. An auto-mesh generation program was developed for iterative calculations of optimum design, and stresses in the blade cross-section were analyzed by VABS (variational asymptotic beam sectional analysis) program. Minimum mass of rotor blade was defined as an object function, and stress failure index, center mass and blade minimum mass per unit length were chosen as constraints. Finally, design parameters such as the thickness and layup angles of a skin, and the thickness, position and width of a torsion box were determined through the structural optimum design method of composite rotor blade cross-section presented in this paper.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2018

In this study, the internal structural design, dynamic characteristics and load analyses of the small scaled rotor blade required for LCH(Light Civil Helicopter) main rotor wind tunnel test were carried out. The test is performed to evaluate the aerodynamic performance and noise characteristics of the LCH main rotor system. Therefore, the Mach-scale technique was appled to design the small scaled blade to simulate the equivalent aerodynamic characteristics as the full scale rotor system. It is necessary to increase the rotor speed to maintain the same blade tip speed as the full scale blade. In addition, the blade weight, section stiffness, and natural frequency were scaled according to the Mach-type scaling factor(${\lambda}$). For the design of skin, spar, torsion box, which are the main components of the blade, carbon and glass fiber composite materials were adopted, and composite materials are prepreg types that can be supplied domestically. The KSec2D program was used to evaluate the section stiffness of the blade. Also, structural loads and dynamic characteristics of the Mach scale blade were investigated through the comprehensive rotorcraft analysis program CAMRADII.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

Fatigue properties of composite materials are extremely important to design durable and reliable helicopter rotor blades. However, it is very difficult to apply conventional fatigue test loads in short period. Therefore, accelerating test speed and facilitating spectrum load realization are required. In this study, we have developed a fatigue testing method that uses a resonance of simply supported beam type blade specimen. This test consists in exciting the blade specimen with a frequency that corresponds to its natural frequency. In that case, the test specimen similar to a beam fixed between two pivot points starts vibrating and is significantly deformed. Resonant fatigue tests were performed by changing exciting vertical amplitude and frequency, and S-N curves of each composite materials were successfully obtained.