• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.521-530
• /
• 2011

Since aircraft fuel tanks have many interfaces connected to the airframe as well as the fuel system, they have been considered as one of the system-dependent critical components. Crashworthy fuel tanks have been widely implemented to rotorcraft and rendered a great contribution for improving the survivability of crews and passengers. Since the embryonic stage of military rotorcraft history began, the US army has developed and practised a detailed military specification documenting the unique crashworthiness requirements for rotorcraft fuel tanks to prevent most, hopefully all, fatality due to post-crash fire. The mandatory crash impact test required by the relevant specification, MIL-DTL-27422D, has been recognized as a non-trivial mission and caused inevitable delay of a number of noticeable rotorcraft development programs such as that of V-22. The crash impact test itself takes a long-term preparation efforts together with costly fuel tank specimens. Thus a series of numerical simulations of the crash impact test with digital mock-ups is necessary even at the early design stage to minimize the possibility of trial-and-error with full-scale fuel tanks. In the present study the crash impact simulation of a few fuel tank configurations is conducted with the commercial package, Autodyn, and the resulting equivalent stresses and internal pressures are evaluated in detail to suggest a design improvement for the fuel tank configuration.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.736-741
• /
• 2017

This paper examines the design for improving the wiper system of rotorcraft. During rotorcraft operation, the wiping performance and excessive clearance can decrease. The wiper system consists of a wiper arm assembly, motor, convertor and flex drive. If there is a problem with the wiper system, the operation ability decreases because the operation is restricted in a rainy environment. There are two main causes of the problem of the wiper system: the lifting forces acting on the wiper arm in aircraft flight and the excessive gap of the components. To remedy these two problems, the wiper arm was improved. The improvements included increased contact pressure on the wiper arm (spring tension), improved gear clearance, and material and shape changes. Durability test, aircraft ground test and flight test were carried out to verify the improved shape, and it was confirmed that the wiping performance and clearance problems were solved. Currently, the rotorcraft is operated without problem by applying the improved shape, and this design improvement process will be a useful reference for future rotorcraft development.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.134-141
• /
• 2019

This paper is a study on design improvement of rotorcraft horizontal stabilizer. The rotorcraft horizontal stabilizer stabilizes the behavior of the pitch, yaw, etc. from the aircraft. Because of this role, horizontal stabilizers are a major component (Flight Safety Part) that affects flight safety on rotorcraft. However, when the rotorcraft was operated in domestic, cracks were found in the inner structure of the horizontal stabilizer and design improvement was needed. In this paper, we identified the two causes of the horizontal stabilizer crack defects through fracture analysis and structural analysis. The first is the tightening torque when the bolt is tightened, and the second is the lead-lag behavior of aircraft. In order to improve these two causes, bolt fastening method, flange structure and thickness were changed and composite ring was applied. In order to verify the design improvement, the structural analysis was performed and the structural strength was improved. Also Fatigue analysis of the internal structure (Rib 1) was performed and it was confirmed that the requirements were satisfied.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.44-53
• /
• 2009

In this paper, Recursive Least Squares (RLS) and Fourier Transform Regression (FTR) methods for estimating stability and control derivatives of small unmanned helicopter are evaluated together with MMLE technique. Flight data simulated by using a commercial small-scale helicopter model are exploited to estimate the parameters with accuracies for hover and cruise modes. The performances of the system identification methods are also compared by analyzing the responses of the reconstructed systems using estimated derivatives.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.41 no.7
• /
• pp.561-568
• /
• 2013

After we designed Bearingless rotor hub system for 7,000lb class helicopter, flexbeam fatigue analysis was conducted for validation of requirement life time 8,000 hours. sectional structural analysis method applying elastic beam model was used. Fatigue analysis for two sections of flexbeam which were expected to weak to fatigue damage from result of static analysis was conducted. Extension, bending and torsion stiffness of flexbeam section shape was calculated using VABS for structure analysis. S-N curve of two composite material which composed flexbeam was generated using wohler equation. Load analysis of bearingless rotor system was conducted using CAMRAD II and load analysis result was applied HELIX/FELIX standard load spectrum to generate bearingless rotor system load spectrum which was used flexbeam fatigue safe life analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.46 no.10
• /
• pp.823-832
• /
• 2018

In general, the fidelity of the aircraft dynamic model is verified by comparison with the flight test results of the target aircraft. Therefore, the reference flight data for performance comparisons must be extracted. This process requires a lot of time and manpower to extract useful data from the vast quantity of flight test data containing various noise for comparing fidelity. In particular, processing of flight data is complex because rotorcraft have high non-linearity characteristics such as coupling and wake interference effect and perform various maneuvers such as hover and backward flight. This study defines flight data processing criteria for rotorcraft and provides procedures and methods for automated processing of static and dynamic flight data using data mining techniques. Finally, the methods presented are validated using flight data.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.186-196
• /
• 2017

In order to resolve the trimming difficulty in rotor CFD calculations, a high-efficiency and improved "delta trim method" is established to compute the blade control settings that are necessary to identify the blade motion. In this method, a simplified model which combines the blade element theory and different inflow models is employed to calculate the control settings according to the target aerodynamic forces, then it is coupled into a CFD solver with unsteady Navier-Stokes equations by the delta methodology, which makes the control settings and aerodynamics calculated and updated in the meantime at every trim cycle. Different from the previous work, the current research combines the inflow model based on prescribed wake theory. Using the method established, the control settings and aerodynamic characteristics of Helishape 7A, AH-1G and Caradonna-Tung rotors are calculated. The influence of different inflow models on trimming calculations is analyzed and the computational efficiency of the current "delta trim method" is compared with that of the "CFD-based trim method". Furthermore, for the sake of improving the calculation efficiency, a novel acceleration factor method is introduced to accelerate the trimming process. From the numerical cases, it is demonstrated that the current "delta trim method" has higher computational efficiency than "CFD-based trim method" in both hover and forward flight, and up to 70% of the amount of calculation can be saved by current "delta trim method" which turns out to be satisfactory for engineering applications. In addition, the proposed acceleration factor shows a good ability to accelerate the trim procedure, and the prescribed wake inflow model is always of better stability than other simple inflow models whether the acceleration factor is utilized in trimming calculations.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.47 no.11
• /
• pp.821-829
• /
• 2019

Because rotorcraft is unstable, it needs a stability system such as flybar. Recently, sensor technology has been developed, it uses a stability augmentation system to improve stability instead of flybar. To use of these rotorcraft which include stability augmentations system for unmanned system, flight control computer, include stability augmentations system function, must be required. In this paper, a reverse-engineering method of estimating Algorithm of Commercial Stability Augmentation System is proposed, the result is applied in the flight computer to make an unmanned rotorcraft system. Finally using a validated algorithm, it is possible to establish a system of unmanned automatic rotorcraft system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.39 no.5
• /
• pp.458-465
• /
• 2011

UAV-UGV teaming concept has been proposed that can compensate for weak points of each platform by providing carrying, launching, recovery and recharging capability for the VTOL-UAV through the host UGV. The teaming concept can expand the observation envelop of the UGV and extend the operational capability of the UAV through mechanical combination of each system. The spherical-shaped coaxial rotorcraft UAV is suggested to provide flexible and precise interface between two systems. Hybrid navigation solution that included vision-based target tracking method for precision landing is investigated and its experimental study is performed. Feasibility study on length-variable rotor to provide the compact configuration of the loaded rotorcraft platform is also described.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.83-90
• /
• 2017

Performance analysis of the turboshaft engines for combined rotorcraft was executed. A tip jet and a ducted fan aircraft were selected for combined rotorcraft application. Gasturb 12 software was used for turboshaft engine performance analysis. In the results, maximum required power for the tip jet engine is about 1,600 hp class and maximum required power for the ducted fan engine is about 1,000 hp class at the required aircraft mission. This is due to the additional power of the auxiliary compressor to get a bleed air mass flow rate for the tip jet operation. At the same time, fuel consumption of the tip jet aircraft is 2.8 times larger than ducted fan case. Therefore ducted fan type aircraft is more efficient than tip jet aircraft in terms of fuel economy.