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Survivability of helicopter with individual blade primary control failure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2016

R. Ganguli ,
B. Jehnert ,
J. Wolfram  and
P. Voersmann
R. Ganguli
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
B. Jehnert
Affiliation:
Institut für Luft und Raumfahrtsysteme, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
J. Wolfram
Affiliation:
Institut für Luft und Raumfahrtsysteme, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
P. Voersmann
Affiliation:
Institut für Luft und Raumfahrtsysteme, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
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Abstract

The effect of actuator damage on a helicopter rotor with an IBC based primary control system is studied. Such a system eliminates the swashplate and can be accomplished by trailing-edge flaps, active twist or full authority IBC, especially with smart material actuators. Damage to the collective, longitudinal and lateral cyclic are simulated for one blade, both individually and in combinations ranging from partial damage to complete failure. Numerical results are obtained using a dissimilar blade aeroelastic analysis based on finite elements in space and time for hover and forward speed conditions. It is found that the helicopter can be trimmed for all cases with all three controls having failed on the blade with actuator damage thereby showing that the IBC actuated rotor can survive an actuator failure and can be reconfigured by the pilot using the controls on the other blades. However, in case the collective fails and the longitudinal cyclic is present, there are problems in achieving trim at high damage levels at high forward speeds. Physical explanations of this phenomenon are given. The response (especially flap) for the damaged rotor blades can become high and 1/rev and 2/rev are transmitted by the reconfigured rotor to the hub. Results show that IBC based primary controls provide redundancy which can improve the survivability of a helicopter in case of actuator failure in one blade.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 111 , Issue 1124 , October 2007 , pp. 645 - 657
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2007 

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