Tilt-rotor flutter control in cruise flight

Abstract

Tilt-rotor flutter control under cruising operation is analyzed. The rotor model consists of a straight fixed wing, a pylon attached to the wingtip, and a three-blade rotor. The wing is cantilevered to the fuselage and is allowed to bend forward and upward. It also has a torsional degree of freedom about the elastic axis. Each rotor blade has two bending degrees of freedom. Feedback of wingtip velocity and acceleration to cyclic pitch is investigated for flutter control, using strip theory and linearized equations of motion. To determine the feedback gain, an eigenvalue analysis is performed. A second, independent, timewise calculation is conducted to evaluate the control law while employing more sophisticated aerodynamics. The effectiveness of flutter control by cyclic pitch change was confirmed.