• 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.