Aeroelastic Tailoring of Helicopter Blades

The dynamic loads transmitted from the rotor to the airframe are responsible for vibrations, discomfort and alternate stress on components. A new and promising way to minimize vibration is to reduce dynamic loads at their source by performing an aeroelastic optimization of the rotor. This optimization uses couplings between the flapwise-bending motion and the torsion motion. The impacts of elastic couplings (composite anisotropy) and inertial couplings (center-of-gravity offset) on blade dynamic behavior and on dynamic loads are evaluated in this paper. First, analytical results, based on a purely linear modal approach, are given to understand the influence of these couplings on blade dynamic behavior. Then, a complete nonlinear aeroelastic model of the rotor, including elastic and inertial couplings, is derived. Finally, this last model is used to improve a simplified but representative blade (homogeneous beam with constant chord) and results are presented.