Active Twist of Composite Rotor Blade
XV International Conference on Mechanics of Composite Materials: Book of Abstracts 2008
Andrejs Kovaļovs, Jevgenijs Barkanovs, Sergejs Gluhih

Vibratory loads in helicopters arise from a variety of sources such as the main rotor system, the aerodynamic interaction between the rotor and the fuselage, the tail rotor, the engine and transmission, and atmospheric turbulence. This problem create a lot of disadvantage with performance of helicopters, maneuverability, discomfort of pilot, low fatigue life of the structural components, and consequently high operating cost. Present time exist various methodologies for vibration reduction, such as Higher Harmonic Control (HHC), Individual Blade Control (IBC), Active Control of Structural Response (ACSR) , Active Twist Blade (ATB), and Active Trailing-edge Flap (ATF). The goal of the presented work is the development of an active twist actuation concept, which based on application of Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) actuator. This concept increase the flight performance and as result reduce vibration. The MFC consist of polyimid films with IDE-electrodes that are glued on the top and the bottom of piezoceramic ribbons and oriented at ±450 to blade spanwise axis. The interdigitated electrodes deliver the electric field required to activate the piezoelectric effect in the fibers and allows to invoke the stronger longitudinal piezoelectric effect along the length of the fibers. Due to properties and orientation of piezoelectric actuators the MFC actuators to induce shear stresses and thus a distribute twisting moment along the blade. Thermal strain analogy between piezoelectric strains and thermally induced strains is used to model piezoelectric effects, when piezoelectric coefficients characterizing an actuator are introduced as thermal expansion coefficients. Then steady-state thermal analysis is carried out to determine a torsion angle of the rotor blade, static torsion analysis – to determine a location of the elastic axis and modal analysis – to determine the first torsion eigenfrequency of the rotor blade. The design methodology based on the planning of experiments and response surface technique has been developed for an optimum placement of Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) actuators in the composite rotor blades of helicopter. The baseline helicopter rotor blade (Fig.1) consists of C-spar made of unidirectional glass-fiber reinforced plastic (UD GFRP), skin made of ±450 GFRP, foam core, MFC actuators placement on the skin and balance weight. 3D finite element model of the rotor blade has been built by ANSYS, where the rotor blade skin and spar “moustaches” are modelled by the linear layered structural shell elements SHELL99, and the spar and foam - by 3D 20-node structural solid elements SOLID186. The optimisation results have been obtained for design solutions, connected with an application of active materials, and checked by the finite element calculations.


Atslēgas vārdi
active twist, MFC,

Kovaļovs, A., Barkanovs, J., Gluhih, S. Active Twist of Composite Rotor Blade. No: XV International Conference on Mechanics of Composite Materials: Book of Abstracts, Latvija, Riga, 26.-30. maijs, 2008. Riga: Institute of Polymer Mechanics, University of Latvia, 2008, 148.-149.lpp.

Publikācijas valoda
English (en)
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