An Experimental Investigation of the Aeroelastic Stability of Next-Generation Blade for Helicopter

헬리콥터용 차세대 블레이드의 공력탄성학적 안정성에 관한 시험적 연구

This paper describes the aeroelastic stability test of the small-scaled 'Next-Generation Blade(NRSB)' with NRSH (Next-Generation Hub System) and HCTH hingeless hub system in hover and forward flight conditions. Excitation tests of rotor system installed in GSRTS(General Small-scale Rotor Test System) at KARI(Korea Aerospace Research Institute) were tarried out to get lead-lag damping ratio of blades with flexures as hub flexure. MBA(Moving Block Analysis) technique was used for the estimation of lead-lag damping ratio. First, NRSB-1F blades with HCTH hub system, Then NRSB-1F with NRSH hub system were tested. Second, NRSB-2F blades with NRSH hub system were tested. Tests were done on the ground and in the wind tunnel according to the test conditions of hover and forward flight, respectively. Non-rotating natural frequencies, non-rotating damping ratios and rotating natural frequencies were showed similar level fir each cases. Estimated damping ratios of NRSB-1F, NRSB-2F with HCTH and NRSH were above 0.5%, and damping ratio increased by collective pitch angle increasement. Furthermore damping ratios of NRSB-2F were higher than damping ratios of NRSB-1F in high pitch angle. It was confirmed that the blade design for noise reduction would give observable improvement in aeroelastic stability compared to paddle blade and NRSB-1F design.