• Composites Research
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.353-359
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• 2020

In this work, a contour-based section analysis method incorporating the use of Bézier curves is attempted for the construction of optimal structural design framework of composite helicopter blades. The suggested section analysis method is able to analyze composite blades with solid cores made of arbitrary materials and geometric shapes. The contour-based section analysis method is integrated into a blade structural optimization framework to confirm the efficiency of the present approach. The numerical simulation result demonstrates that the optimized blade configurations are obtained with a reduction in mass by 52%, compared to the baseline blade. For the structural optimization of composite blades with 19 subsections, it takes about one hour for the successful optimization while satisfying all the design constraints considered in this study, which reveals the efficiency of the present approach.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.524-531
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• 2013

This work aims at developing a RTB (Rotor Track and Balance) system to alleviate imbalances originating from various sources encountered during blade manufacturing process and environmental factors. The analytical RTB model is determined based on the linear regression analysis to relate the RTB adjustment parameters and their track and vibration results. The model is validated using the flight test data of a full helicopter. It is demonstrated that the linearized model has been correlated well with the test data. A hybrid optimization problem is formulated to find the best solution of the RTB adjustment parameters using the genetic algorithm combined with the PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) algorithm. The optimization results reveal that both track deviations and vibration levels under various flight conditions become decreased within the allowable tolerances.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.4 s.117
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• pp.342-348
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• 2006

Aerial application using an unmanned agricultural helicopter became necessary for both labor saving and timely spraying. In the previous paper, a rotor system was developed and lift capability was evaluated. The experimental results were compared with simulated predictions using the CFD-ACE program. From the simulation, the relative velocity on the top surface of the blade airfoil increased, resulting in the pressure drop. The CFD analyses were revealed that a drag resistance on the leading edge of the airfoil, a wake at the trailing edge, and a positive pressure underneath the bottom surface were observed. As the results of the simulation, total lifts of 56.8, 74.4 and $95.0kg_f$ were obtained at the 6, 8 and $10^{\circ}$ of AAT (angle of attack), respectively. The simulation results agreed reasonably up to $10^{\circ}$ of AAT. However, at a greater AAT $(<12^{\circ})$ the simulated total lift continuously increased to $105kg_f$, comparing with a decreasing experimental total lift due to the lack of engine power. At a stiff angle of $18^{\circ}$ AAT, a wake was observed at the trailing edge of the airfoil. A rated operating condition determined from the previous paper was also verified through the simulation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.439-446
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• 2016

The characteristics of bearingless main rotor of helicopter are investigated through non-rotating tests and rotating tests. The stiffness and natural frequencies of rotor blades, flexbeam, and torque tube which are core components of baearingless rotor are measured to obtain input material properties for rotor analysis. The functional test on ground for assembly of one hub with damper, snubber, and no blade is carried out to check interfaces between components, kinematics of components, and pitch motion ranges under applied loads including centrifugal load. The 4-bladed bearingless rotor with 5.82m of rotor radius is tested on the whirl tower with rotation plane of 9.65m height. The thrust and power are measured to obtain hover performance and the frequencies and dampings of the rotor are obtained by excitation of cyclic pitch by hydraulic actuators.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.41-47
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• 2010

There are many unbalanced models such as helicopter's rotor blades, small-sized precision motor in industrial applications. In the real products, their gravity center usually does not accord with the desired gravity center. If the deviation is large between them, it can be a major cause of vibration and noise as the part of model rotate. Therefore the gravity center in the rotational parts should be controlled properly because of static and dynamic balancing of the parts. In the research, the rotor blade of unmanned helicopter has been selected to obtain the high quality of balancing. In order to achieve the purpose, measuring system has been developed. In the system applied principle is three point weighting method, which is one of the Multiple-point Weighting Method. It has circle fitting for compensation of machining error, after measuring the values. From this study, the results showed that the proposed measurement procedure gives reliable and precise gravity center.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2005

An aerodynamic shape optimization technique has been developed for helicopter rotor blades in hover based on a continuous adjoint method on unstructured meshes. The Euler flow solver and the continuous adjoint sensitivity analysis were formulated on the rotating frame of reference for hovering rotor blades. In order to handle the repeated evaluation of the design cycle efficiently, the flow and adjoint solvers were parallelized using a domain decomposition strategy. A solution-adaptive mesh refinement technique was adopted for the accurate capturing of the tip vortex. Applications were made for the aerodynamic shape optimization of Caradonna-Tung rotor blades and UH60 rotor blades in hover. The results showed that the present method is an effective tool to determine optimum aerodynamic shapes of rotor blades requiring less torque while maintaining the desired thrust level.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.23-33
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• 2009

The inherent aeromechanical complexity of a rotor system necessitated the comprehensive analysis code for helicopter rotor system. In the present study, an aerodynamic analysis module has been developed as a part of rotorcraft comprehensive program. Aerodynamic analysis module is largely classified into airload calculation routine and inflow analysis routine. For airload calculation, quasi-steady analysis model is employed based on the blade element method with the correction of unsteady aerodynamic effects. In order to take unsteady effects - body motion effects and dynamic stall - into account, aerodynamic coefficients are corrected by considering Leishman-Beddoes's unsteady model. Various inflow models and vortex wake models are implemented in the aerodynamic module to consider wake induced inflow. Specifically, linear inflow, dynamic inflow, prescribed wake and free wake model are integrated into the present module. The aerodynamic characteristics of each method are compared and validated against available experimental data such as Elliot's induced inflow distribution and sectional normal force coefficients of AH-1G. In order to validate unsteady aerodynamic model, 2-D unsteady model for NACA0012 airfoil is validated against aerodynamic coefficients of McAlister's experimental data.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.957-963
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• 2007

this study, helicopter rotor flow is simulated by using a tightly coupled CFD/FreeWake method to describe wake characteristics and to calculate the flow field and rotor aerodynamics. In this tightly coupled CFD/FreeWake method, freewake model provides the boundary condition required in the CFD calculation and CFD provides the pressure distribution on blade surface used in feewake generation. To show the advantage of this method, the pressure distributions on blade surface of a hovering 2-bladed rotor are compared with other numerical methods. This tightly coupled CFD/FreeWake method shows good accuracy in the predicted results and efficient computation time.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.186-196
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• 2017

In order to resolve the trimming difficulty in rotor CFD calculations, a high-efficiency and improved "delta trim method" is established to compute the blade control settings that are necessary to identify the blade motion. In this method, a simplified model which combines the blade element theory and different inflow models is employed to calculate the control settings according to the target aerodynamic forces, then it is coupled into a CFD solver with unsteady Navier-Stokes equations by the delta methodology, which makes the control settings and aerodynamics calculated and updated in the meantime at every trim cycle. Different from the previous work, the current research combines the inflow model based on prescribed wake theory. Using the method established, the control settings and aerodynamic characteristics of Helishape 7A, AH-1G and Caradonna-Tung rotors are calculated. The influence of different inflow models on trimming calculations is analyzed and the computational efficiency of the current "delta trim method" is compared with that of the "CFD-based trim method". Furthermore, for the sake of improving the calculation efficiency, a novel acceleration factor method is introduced to accelerate the trimming process. From the numerical cases, it is demonstrated that the current "delta trim method" has higher computational efficiency than "CFD-based trim method" in both hover and forward flight, and up to 70% of the amount of calculation can be saved by current "delta trim method" which turns out to be satisfactory for engineering applications. In addition, the proposed acceleration factor shows a good ability to accelerate the trim procedure, and the prescribed wake inflow model is always of better stability than other simple inflow models whether the acceleration factor is utilized in trimming calculations.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.329-335
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• 2009

The unsteady panel and time-marching free wake are applied to the rotor aerodynamics and wake behaviour. Numerical results of panel and free wake are compared and validated with experimental data. Using these methods, unsteady rotor aerodynamics in BVI condition is analyzed and discussed in detail.