Examination of Rotor Loads due to On-Blade Active Controls for Performance Enhancement

• Published in: Journal of aircraft 2010-11, Vol.47 (6), p.2049-2066
• Main Authors: Jain, Rohit, Yeo, Hyeonsoo, Chopra, Inderjit
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerodynamics; Aircraft; Exact sciences and technology; Flight simulation; Fluid dynamics; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); General theory; Jet engines; Load; Physics; Solid mechanics; Structural and continuum mechanics; Studies; Vibration, mechanical wave, dynamic stability (aeroelasticity, vibration control...)
• ISSN: 0021-8669; 1533-3868
• DOI: 10.2514/1.C000306

On-blade active controls with trailing-edge deflection, leading-edge deflection, and active-twist are studied for improvements in rotor aerodynamic efficiency and their influence on structural loads. A full-scale UH-60A Blackhawk rotor at two key flight conditions (high-speed forward flight and high-thrust forward flight) is studied using coupled computational fluid dynamics and computational structural dynamics simulations. A simulation-based trade study is carried out comprising parametric variations of geometric sizing and deployment schedules of the blade morphing. The study shows that active controls improve rotor performance and reduce rotor loads at the same time with careful selection of deployment schedule and design. In high-speed forward flight, using trailing-edge deflection, an improvement of 7.3% in performance and a reduction in the hub vibratory loads of up to 54% is achieved, and using active-twist an improvement of 7.0% in performance and up to 22% reduction in hub vibratory loads is achieved. In high-thrust forward flight, a 15.0% improvement in performance and up to 40% reduction in hub vibratory loads is achieved using leading-edge deflection. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]