Design, Simulation, and Experimental Results for Flexible Rotors in a Ship Airwake

First, an overview of the design and construction of a 1/12th Froude-scaled flap-articulated rotor system that is immersed in a ship airwake flowfield is presented. Experimental challenges that were identified during and following the use of this system in an experimental study and their impact on the data are discussed. The experimental rotor system is presented as a useful testbed for theories and models of flexible multibody systems with gyrating beams undergoing large deformations. Second, the flap-articulated Froude-scaled experimental rotor system is tested in a scaled ship airwake environment using the National Research Council 2×3  m wind tunnel. Based on experimental and simulation data, conclusions are drawn regarding the influence of the aerodynamic environment and the rotor operation parameters on the rotor blade elastic deflections during the engagement/disengagement phase. It is concluded that the parameters of the engagement/disengagement profile play a minimal role in the occurrence of lar...

[1]  M. Selig.  Summary of low speed airfoil data , 1995 .

[2]  Edward C. Smith,et al.  Aeroelastic Analysis of Transient Blade Dynamics During Shipboard Engage/Disengage Operations , 1998 .

[3]  Edward C. Smith,et al.  Experimental and Theoretical Correlation of Helicopter Rotor Blade-Droop Stop Impacts , 1999 .

[4]  Hartmut Bossel,et al.  Modeling and simulation , 1994 .

[5]  Jonathan Allen Keller,et al.  Analysis and Control of the Transient Aeroelastic Response of Rotors During Shipboard Engagement and Disengagement Operations , 2001 .

[6]  Fred F. Afagh,et al.  Application of the First Order Generalized-α Method to the Solution of an Intrinsic Geometrically Exact Model of Rotor Blade Systems , 2009 .

[7]  Peretz P. Friedmann,et al.  Aeroelastic scaling for rotary-wing aircraft with applications , 2004 .

[8]  S. J. Newman,et al.  The verification of a theoretical helicopter rotor blade sailing method by means of windtunnel testing , 1995, The Aeronautical Journal (1968).

[9]  Fred F. Afagh,et al.  Influence of ship motion on the aeroelastic response of a Froude-scaled maritime rotor system , 2012 .

[10]  Richard L. Bielawa,et al.  Rotary wing structural dynamics and aeroelasticity , 1992 .

[11]  Simon Newman.  The safety of shipborne helicopter operation , 2004 .

[12]  Jr William T. Yeager,et al.  Important Scaling Parameters for Testing Model-Scale Helicopter Rotors , 1998 .

[13]  Alanna Wall,et al.  A discrete approach to modelling helicopter blade sailing , 2009 .