General Purpose Cross-section Analysis Program for Composite Rotor Blades

A two-dimensional cross-section analysis program based on the finite element method has been developed for composite blades with arbitrary cross-section profiles and material distributions. The modulus weighted approach is used to take into account the non-homogeneous material characteristics of advanced blades. The CLPT (Classical Lamination Plate Theory) is applied to obtain the effective moduli of the composite laminate. The location of shear center for any given cross-sections are determined according to the Trefftz' definition while the torsion constants are obtained using the St. Venant torsion theory. A series of benchmark examples for beams with various cross-sections are illustrated to show the accuracy of the developed cross-section analysis program. The cross section cases include thin-walled C-channel, I-beam, single-cell box, NACA0012 airfoil, and KARI small-scale blades. Overall, a reasonable correlation is obtained in comparison with experiments or finite element analysis results.