– This paper aims to correlate the flexible multibody analysis for the performance, blade airloads, rotor pitch control angles, and blade structural loads of a full-scale utility helicopter rotor in low-speed forward flight with wind tunnel test and flight test data.
– A nonlinear flexible multibody dynamics analysis code, DYMORE, is used to analyze the performance and aeromechanics of a utility helicopter rotor in low-speed forward flight. The main rotor system is modeled using various multibody elements such as rigid bodies, nonlinear elastic beams, mechanical joints, and elastic springs/dampers. The freewake model is used to capture rotor wakes more elaborately in low-speed forward flight.
– Fair to good correlations of rotor performance such as figure of merit in hover, rotor power, propulsive force, and lift in low-speed forward flight are achieved with sweeps of the thrust, rotor shaft tilting angle, and advance ratio, against wind tunnel test data. The blade section normal forces from the mid-span to outboard are fairly or well correlated with flight test data, but the normal force at the inboard blade station is under-predicted. The trimmed pitch control angles are reasonably predicted; however, the lateral cyclic pitch control angle is moderately under-predicted. The flap bending moments are compared fairly with measurements; however, the oscillations of the lead-lag bending and torsion moments are not captured well.
– Reasonable predictions of the performance and aeromechanics of the rotor in low-speed forward flight will allow the flexible multibody dynamics to be used for the rotorcraft comprehensive analysis, in place of expensive flight and wind tunnel tests of the rotor.
– Up to now, the stand-alone flexible multibody dynamics without the aid of external aerodynamic analysis has not been widely used for the analyses of rotor performance and aeromechanics in low-speed forward flight. However, the present flexible multibody dynamics analysis directly integrated with the freewake model gives fair to good correlation of the rotor performance and aeromechanics predictions in low-speed forward flight.
