• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.29-36
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• 2004

In this work, the effect of composite couplings on hub loads of a hingeless rotor in forward flight is investigated. The hingeless composite rotor blade is idealized as a laminated thin-walled box-beam. The nonclassical effects such as transverse shear, torsional warping are considered in the structural formulation. The nonlinear differential equations of motion are obtained by applying Hamilton's principle. The blade response and hub loads are calculated using a finite element formulation in space and time. The aerodynamic forces acting on the blade are calculated by 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 $({\delta}3)$ or $pitch-lag({\alpha}1)$ coupling. It is found that the elastic couplings have a substantial effect on the behavior of $N_b/rev$ hub loads. Nearly 10 to 40% of hub loads is reduced by appropriately tailoring the fiber orientation angles in the laminae of the composite blade.

• 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.

• 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 of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1385-1389
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• 2005

This paper describes the design, analysis and manufacture procedure of the composite blade for hingeless rotor system of unmanned helicopters. Helicopter rotor system is the key structural unit that produces thrust and control forces for intended flight conditions. In this work, a hingeless rotor system is adopted, and base on the design requirements for rotor system, composite blade section design and calculation of material properties were performed. In order to avoid the unstable state such as resonance, vibration characteristics of rotor system were analyzed. Finally, this paper describes the forming and manufacture of composite blade.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.206-209
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• 2001

This paper contains the development procedure of small-scaled composite rotor blade for helicopter hingeless rotor system. Composite blade design is conducted by using CORDAS program developed by KARI and dynamic analysis is conducted by using Flightlab which is commercial software for helicopter analysis. Also the optimizing procedure of iterative design was described. The designed composite blades were manufactured after establishing the effective curing method. Through this research, the experiences of composite rotor blade development were accumulated and will be applied to the related research field.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.386-391
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• 1998

The effect of the changes in parameter angles(precone, droop, sweep) on the lead-lag damping was focused on. Experiment was made with hingeless 4-blade rotors and NACA 0012 airfoil. For the measurement of the rotating natural frequencies and lead-lag damping, non-rotating swash plate was oscillated at the regressing lag mode frequency and the data were acquired after the excitation was cut off. Analysis was made using a finite element formulation based on Hamilton's principle. The main blade is assumed as elastic beams. Quasi-steady strip theory is used to obtain aerodynamic forces, and non-circulatory forces are also included.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.819-826
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• 1997

The finite element analyses of a composite hingeless rotor blade in forward flight have been performed to investigate the influence of blade design parameters on the blade stability. The blade structure is represented by a single cell composite box-beam and its nonclassical effects such as transverse shear and torsion-related warping are considered. The nonlinear periodic differential equations of motion are obtained by moderate deflection beam theory and finite element method based on Hamilton principle. Aerodynamic forces are calculated using the quasi-steady strip theiry with compressibility and reverse flow effects. The coupling effects between the rotor blade and the fuselage are included in a free flight propulsive trim analysis. Damping values are calculated by using the Floquet transition matrix theory from the linearized equations perturbed at equilibrium position of the blade. The aeroelastic results were compared with an alternative analytic approch, and they showed good correlation with each other. Some parametric investigations for the helicopter design variables, such as pretwist and precone angles are carried out to know the aeroelastic behavior of the rotor.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2008

The aeroelastic stability analysis of a soft-in-plane, composite hingeless rotor blade in hover and in forward flight has been performed by combining the mixed beam method and the aeroelastic analysis system that is based on a moderate deflection beam approach. The aerodynamic forces and moments acting on the blade are obtained using the Leishman-Beddoes unsteady aerodynamic model. Hamilton's principle is used to derive the governing equations of composite helicopter blades undergoing extension, lag and flap bending, and torsion deflections. The influence of key structural modeling issues on the aeroelastic stability behavior of helicopter blades is studied. The issues include the shell wall thickness, elastic couplings and the correct treatment of constitutive assumptions in the section wall of the blade. It is found that the structural modeling effects are largely dependent on the layup geometries adopted in the section of the blade and these affect on the stability behavior in a large scale.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.156-162
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• 2008

The static aeroelastic analysis of composite hingeless rotor blades in hover was performed using free-wake method. Large deflection beam theory was applied to analyze blade motions as a one-dimension beam. Anisotropic beam theory was applied to perform a cross-sectional analysis for composite rotor blades. Aerodynamic loads were calculated through a three-dimensional aerodynamic model which is based on the unsteady vortex lattice method. The wake geometry in hover was described using a time-marching free-wake method. Numerical results of the steady-state deflections for the composite hingeless rotor blades were presented and compared with those results based on two-dimensional quasi-steady strip theory and prescribed wake method. It was shown that wakes affect the steady-state deflections.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.217-228
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• 2004

This paper presents the rotating test techniques and the results of the roating test of the small-scaled hingeless rotor system with composite paddle blades in hover and forward flight conditions. The small-scaled rotor system was designed using froude-scaled properties of full scale rotor system. Metal flexures and composite flexures were made as hub flexures by the same dynamic properties of rotor system. The rotating tests of hingeless rotor system installed in GSRTS at KARI were carried out to get lead-lag damping ratios and aerodynamic loads of the hingeless rotor system. MBA(Moving Block Analysis) technique was used for the estimation of lead-lag damping ratio. 6-components balance was installed between hub and main shaft and straingauges on blades were instrumented for the measurements of aerodynamic loads of rotor system. Tests were performed on the ground and in the wind tunnel according to the test conditions of hover and forward flight, respectively.