Morphing Aerofoil Camber for Helicopter Vibration Suppression
Vibration in rotorcraft is a persistent problem which increases the cost of ownership, reduces crew effectiveness and aircraft availability. Active flap systems have been proposed in recent years which aim to cancel out vibratory loads at source by actuating at multiples of the rotational speed. However these can suffer from maintenance and reliability problems, especially if operated in adverse environments such as sandy terrain or icing condition. QinetiQs morphing aerofoil camber system aims to realise the benefits of active flaps without incurring these problems by bending the aerofoil in a continuous manner rather than using a discrete flap. Piezoelectric fibres allow strains to be imparted to the structure to achieve structural deformation. Four active camber blade sections of different configurations representing full-size main rotor blade have been built and tested, and the results were compared to the predictions of the aerofoil characteristics. The vibration reductions achieved by using the best achieved characteristics on a medium-size aircraft were then calculated using QinetiQs Coupled Rotor-Fuselage Model together with a constrained optimiser. The benefits are found to be quite substantial, ranging from 50％ to 80％ throughout the speed range and averaging just under 70％. This study have shown that active camber change technology can have substantial benefits for vibration suppression, possibly as well as noise. Recommendations for de-risking the technology, increasing the fidelity of the modelling and quantifying the benefits and costs have also been made.
Wayland Chan Colin Hatch Neil Adams
QinetiQ, Cody Technology Park,Farnborough, Hampshire, UK GU14 0LX
国际会议
南京
英文
1-13
2009-10-14（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）