• Composites Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.29-37
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• 2004

The aeroelastic stability analysis of composite bearingless rotors is investigated using a large deflection beam theory in hover. The bearingless rotor configuration consists of a single flexbeam with a wrap-around type torque tube and the pitch links located at the leading edge and trailing edge of the torque tube. The outboard main blade, flexbeam and torque tube are all assumed to be an elastic beam undergoing flap bending, lead-lag bending, elastic twist and axial deflections, which are discretized into beam finite elements. For the analysis of composite bearingless rotors, flexbeam is assumed to be a rectangular section made of laminate. Two-dimensional quasi-steady strip theory is used for aerodynamic computation. The finite element equations of motion for beams are obtained from Hamilton's principle. The p-k method is used to determine aeroelastic stability boundary. Numerical results are presented for selected bearingless rotor configurations based on the lay-up of laminae in the flexbeam and pitch links location. A systematic study is made to identify the importance of the stiffness coupling terms on aeroelastic stability for various fiber orientation and for different configuration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.83-86
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• 2004

The aeroelastic stability analysis of composite bearingless rotors is investigated using a large deflection beam theory in hover. The bearingless rotor configuration consists of a single flexbeam with a wrap-around type torque tube and the pitch links located at the leading edge and trailing edge of the torque tube root. For the analysis of composite bearingless rotors, flexbeam is assumed to be a rectangular section made of laminate. Two-dimensional quasi-steady strip theory and Loewy's aerodynamic theory with the lift deficiency function are used for unsteady aerodynamic computation. The finite element equations of motion for beams are obtained using Hamilton's principle. Numerical results of selected bearingless rotor configurations are obtained for the lay-up of laminae in the flexbeam and pitch links location.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.352-357
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• 2012

The ground resonance instability of a helicopter with bearingless main rotor hub were investigated. The ground resonance instability is caused by an interaction between the blade lag motion and hub inplane motion. This instability occurs when the helicopter is on the ground and is important for soft-inplane rotors where the rotating lag mode frequency is less than the rotor rotational speed. For the analysis, the bearingless rotor was composed of blades, flexbeam, torque tube, damper, shear restrainer, and pitch links. The fuselage was modeled as a mass-damper-spring system having natural frequencies in roll and pitch motions. The rotor-fuselage coupling equations are derived in non-rotating frame to consider the rotor and fuselage equations in the same frame. The ground resonance instabilities for three cases where are without lead-lag damper and fuselage damping, with lead-lag damper and without fuselage damping, and finally with lead-lag damper and fuselage damping. There is no ground resonance instability in the only rotor-fuselage configuration with lead-lag damper and fuselage damping.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.503-508
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• 2007

In this study, the aeroelastic response and stability of bearingless rotors are investigated using a large deflection beam theory. The outboard main blade, flexbeam, and torque tube are all assumed to be an elastic beam undergoing arbitrary large displacements and rotations. The finite element equations of motion obtained from Hamilton's principle. Two-dimensional quasi-steady strip theory is used to evaluate aerodynamic forces. In hover, the modal approach method based on coupled rotating natural modes is used for the stability analysis. In 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 results of the full finite element analysis using the large deflection beam theory are compared with those of a previously published modal analysis using the moderate deflection-type beam theory.