ROTOR HUB VIBRATION AND BLADE LOADS REDUCTION, AND ENERGY HARVESTING VIA EMBEDDED RADIAL OSCILLATOR
Open Access
- Author:
- Austruy, Julien
- Graduate Program:
- Aerospace Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- August 03, 2011
- Committee Members:
- Dr Farhan Gandhi, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Farhan S Gandhi, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
George A Lesieutre, Committee Member
Edward C Smith, Committee Member
Sean N Brennan, Committee Member
Karl Martin Reichard, Committee Member - Keywords:
- vibration control
rotorcraft
energy harvesting - Abstract:
- An embedded radial absorber is investigated to control helicopter rotor hub vibration and blade loads. The absorber is modeled as a discrete mass moving in the spanwise direction within the blade. The absorber is retained in place and tuned with a spring and a damper. The radial absorber couples with lead-lag dynamic through Coriolis forces. The embedded radial absorber coupled to the helicopter is analyzed with a comprehensive rotorcraft model. The blade is modeled as an elastic beam undergoing flap bending, lag bending and elastic torsion, and a radial degree of freedom is added for the absorber. The tuning of the embedded radial absorber to a frequency close to 3/rev with no damping is shown to reduce significantly (up to 86%) the 4/rev in-plane hub forces of a 4-bladed hingeless rotor similar to a MBB BO-105 in high speed flight. The simulation shows that the absorber modifies the in-plane blade root shears to synchronize them to cancel each other in the transmission from rotating frame to fixed frame. A design of an embedded radial absorber experiment for hub vibration control is presented and it is concluded that for such high tuning frequencies as 3/rev, it is feasible to use a regular coil spring to compensate for the steady centrifugal force. Large reduction of blade lag shear (85%) and lag bending moment (71%) is achieved by tuning the embedded radial absorber close to 1/rev (also shown for a BO-105 like helicopter in high speed flight). The absorber reduces the amplitude of the lag bending moment at 1/rev, thus reducing the blade lead-lag motion and reducing the blade drag shear and lag bending moment. Finally, the use of the embedded radial absorber is investigated as a source electrical power when combined with an electromagnetic circuit. A model of the electromagnetic system is developed and validated, and an evaluation of the amount of power harvestable for different configurations is presented. The maximum power harvested was calculated to be 133 watts.