• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.489-498
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• 2019

The airloads and structural loads of Light Civil Helicopter (LCH) rotor are investigated using a loose CFD/CSD coupling. The structural dynamics model for LCH 5-bladed rotor cwith elastomeric bearing and inter-bladed damper is constructed using CAMRAD-II. Either isolated rotor or rotor-fuselage model is used to identify the effect of the fuselage on the aeromechanics behavior at a cruise speed of 0.28. The fuselage effect is shown to be marginal on the aeromechanics predictions of LCH rotor, though the effect can be non-negligible for the tail structure due to the prevailing root vortices strengthened by the fuselage upwash. A lifting-line based comprehensive analysis is also conducted to verify the CFD/CSD coupled analysis. The comparison study shows that the comprehensive analysis predictions are generally in good agreements with CFD/CSD coupled results. However, the predicted comprehensive analysis results underestimate peak-to-peak values of blade section airloads and elastic motions due to the limitation of unsteady aerodynamic predictions. Particularly, significant discrepancies appear in the structural loads with apparent phase differences.