The present study examines the effectiveness of optimized aeroelastic couplings and rotor stiffness properties for improving the aeromechanical stability characteristics of a helicopter with a soft-inplane rotor, over a wide range of conditions, to enable the elimination of auxiliary lag dampers. A refined optimization procedure is developed that is robust and numerically efficient. Using this procedure, results indicate that it is possible to significantly reduce the peak instability levels, while enforcing constraints on design variables, and the rotating flap and lag frequencies. Concurrent optimization of the aeroelastic couplings and rotor stiffness parameters, rather than a sequential optimization strategy, yielded a design which provided maximum improvement in aeromechanical stability characteristics. The optimized design for the ground contact condition also resulted in improved lag damping in hover and forward flight. By appropriately selecting additional design parameters such as landing gear roll stiffness it may be possible to altogether alleviate instabilities of the optimized design.


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    Title :

    Concurrent optimization of aeroelastic couplings and rotor stiffness for the alleviation of helicopter aeromechanical instability


    Contributors:
    Hathaway, E. (author) / Gandhi, F. (author)


    Publication date :

    1999


    Size :

    16 Seiten, 17 Quellen


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English