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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1977

Aeroelastic stability of complete rotors with application to a teetering rotor in forward flight

The derivation of a set of non-linear coupled flap-lag-torsion equations of motion for moderately large deflections of an elastic, two-bladed teetering helicopter rotor in forward flight is concisely outlined. The following degrees of freedom are included in the mathematical model: rigid body flapping, rigid body lead-lag, elastic bending in flap and lead-lag, blade root torsion, and shaft torsion. Quasi-steady aerodynamic loads are considered and the effects of reversed flow are included. The aeroelastic stability of the complete rotor is investigated by using a linearized system of equations of motion. The equilibrium position about which the equations are linearized is obtained by considering the trim state of the helicopter, in true or simulated forward flight conditions. The sensitivity of the aeroelastic stability boundaries to interblade structural and mechanical coupling is illustrated by comparing the complete rotor stability boundaries with those obtained from a single blade analysis for a number of hover and forward flight cases.

Shamie, J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Transition measurements of upper and lower rotor blade surfaces in forward flight with thermography

Thermography allows for imaging the location of laminar-to-turbulent boundary layer transition on surfaces in air flows. The determination of BL transition of rotor blades was done in 2017 on the lower surface of a rotor blade in forward flight in the NASA Langley 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel Subsonic Wind Tunnel. This article reports on the follow-on experiment in the same facility and the same blades where thermography was performed on both upper and lower surface synchronously, with the upper surface mapped throughout the full azimuthal range. Blade-tracking rotating mirrors were used for each thermal camera and were synchronized for simultaneous image acquisition. Furthermore, the Differential Infrared Thermography (DIT) technique depicts the unsteady nature of the BL transition in forward flight. Results are presented and discussed. These data are the first ever recorded of both surfaces of a rotor in forward flight.

Boundary layer transition↗
NASA NTRS1985

Hover and forward flight acoustics and performance of a small-scale helicopter rotor system

A 2.1-m diam., 1/6-scale model helicopter main rotor was tested in hover in the test section of the NASA Ames 40- by 80- Foot Wind Tunnel. Subsequently, it was tested in forward flight in the Ames 7- by 10-Foot Wind Tunnel. The primary objective of the tests was to obtain performance and noise data on a small-scale rotor at various thrust coefficients, tip Mach numbers, and, in the later case, various advance ratios, for comparisons with similar existing data on full-scale helicopter rotors. This comparison yielded a preliminary evaluation of the scaling of helicopter rotor performance and acoustic radiation in hover and in forward flight. Correlation between model-scale and full-scale performance and acoustics was quite good in hover. In forward flight, however, there were significant differences in both performance and acoustic characteristics. A secondary objective was to contribute to a data base that will permit the estimation of facility effects on acoustic testing.

Kitaplioglu, C.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Computation of helicopter rotor acoustics in forward flight

This paper presents a new method for computing acoustic signals from helicopter rotors in forward flight. The aerodynamic and acoustic solutions in the near field are computed with a finite-difference solver for the Euler equations. A nonrotating cylindrical Kirchhoff surface is then placed around the entire rotor system. This Kirchhoff surface moves subsonically with the rotor in forward flight. The finite-difference solution is interpolated onto this cylindrical surface at each time step and a Kirchhoff integration is used to carry the acoustic signal to the far field. Computed values for high-speed impulsive noise show excellent agreement with model-rotor and flight-test experimental data. Results from the new method offer high accuracy with reasonable computer resource requirements.

Strawn, Roger↗
NASA NTRS1974

Perturbation solutions for the influence of forward flight on helicopter rotor flapping stability

The stability of the flapping motion of a helicopter rotor blade in forward flight is investigated, using a perturbation technique which gives analytic expressions for the eigenvalues, including the influence of the periodic aerodynamic forces in forward flight. The perturbation solutions are based on small advance ratio (the ratio of the helicopter forward speed to the rotor tip speed). The rotor configurations considered are a single, independent blade; a teetering rotor; a gimballed rotor with three, four, and five or more blades; and a rotor with N independent blades. The constant coefficient approximation with the equations and degrees of freedom in the nonrotating frame represents the flap dynamic reasonably well for the lower frequency modes, although it cannot, of course, be completely correct. The transfer function of the rotor flap response to sinusoidal pitch input is examined, as an alternative to the eigenvalues as a representation of the dynamic characteristics of the flap motion.

Johnson, W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

An experimental and analytical investigation of isolated rotor flap-lag stability in forward flight

For flap-lag stability of isolated rotors, experimental and analytical investigations are conducted in hover and forward flight on the adequacy of a linear quasi-steady aerodynamics theory with dynamic inflow. Forward flight effects on lag regressing mode are emphasized. Accordingly, a soft inplane hingeless rotor with three blades is tested at advance ratios as high as 0.55 and at shaft angles as high as 20 deg. The 1.62-m model rotor is untrimmed with an essentially unrestricted tilt of the tip path plane. By computerized symbolic manipulation, an analytical model is developed in substall to predict stability margins with mode indentification. It also predicts substall and stall regions to help explain the correlation between theory and data. The correlation shows both the strengths and weaknesses of the data and theory, and promotes further insights into areas in which further study is needed in substall and stall.

Gaonkar, Gopal H.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Aeroelastic stability of coupled flap-lag-torsional motion of helicopter rotor blades in forward flight

A set of coupled periodic nonlinear differential flap-lag-torsional equations of blade motion is described which can simulate a blade having a precone, twist, distributed torsion, root torsion, torque offset, blade-root offsets, and offsets among the elastic axis, the aerodynamic center, and the blade cross-sectional center of mass. It is noted that the aerodynamic loads derived for these equations are applicable to cases of both hover and forward flight. The aeroelastic stability of a hingeless helicopter blade is investigated by linearizing the nonlinear differential equations of motion about a time-dependent equilibrium position of the helicopter in forward flight, using propulsion and moment trim procedures. A comparison of the results with those obtained previously for coupled flap-lag-torsional boundaries in hover indicates that aeroelastic-stability margins are degraded due to forward flight.

Friedmann, P.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Identification and Reduction of Interactional Noise of a Quadcopter in Hover and Forward Flight Conditions

Advanced Air Mobility is a vision for a safe, accessible, and sustainable aviation system to transport people and cargo between places not served by traditional aviation. With this emerging transportation industry, there is motivation to characterize the noise of vehicles to determine their potential impacts on the community. An experimental testing campaign was conducted on a representative model of a small unmanned aircraft system in the NASA Langley Low Speed Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel as a continuation of a previous testing campaign. The goals of the current test are to identify sources of interactional noise as well as to test custom-designed rotors and noise reduction devices. The tested noise reduction methods involve increasing the vertical distances between the rotors and the vehicle airframe as well as between the forward and aft rotor disk planes. These methods are intended to reduce rotor-airframe interaction noise in hover and fore-aft rotor wake ingestion noise in forward flight. A phased microphone array is also utilized to identify the locations of prominent noise generation for the different vehicle configurations in forward flight. Elevation of the rotors from the vehicle airframe yielded nearly 8 dBA overall noise reduction in forward flight, while yielding up to 4 dB reduction in overall tonal levels for one of the rotors in hover.

Nikolas S Zawodny↗
NASA NTRS1989

Forward flight effects on broadband shock associated noise of supersonic jets

The stochastic model theory of TAM (1987, 1989) for broadband shock associated noise was extended to include the effects of forward flight. The theory was applied to the forward flight simulation experiments of Norum and Shearin (1984, 1986, and 1988). Good agreement is found between calculated and measured far-field noise spectra over the flight Mach number range of 0.0 to 0.4.

Tam, Christopher K. W.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Aeroacoustic Testing of UAS-Scale Rotors for a Quadcopter in Hover and Forward Flight

A series of experiments was conducted in an anechoic chamber and wind tunnel to investigatethe noise and performance of an optimum hovering rotor design. The optimum hovering rotorexperimental data set presented in this paper provides the community with a rotor that istheoretically easier to model. Isolated rotors were tested in an anechoic hover chamber as wellas on a representative quadcopter vehicle. In the anechoic chamber, performance and acousticmeasurements were taken at various rotor speeds to compare to those of a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) rotor. In the wind tunnel, free-stream velocity, vehicle pitch, and rotor rotationrates were varied to achieve various hover and forward flight operating conditions. Previousinvestigation of a small quadcopter in the Low Speed Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel (LSAWT) hadidentified possible broadband and interactional noise sources due to rotor airframe interactionand rotor-rotor interaction. These publications identified separation, turbulent boundary layertrailing edge, and bluntness vortex shedding as the main sources of self-generated airfoil noise.By replacing the COTS rotor with an optimum hovering rotor design, self-generated broadbandnoise was reduced for both hover and forward flight conditions for isolated rotor runs. However,the optimum rotors only reduced noise levels for full-vehicle hover conditions, and had little tono reduction in full-vehicle forward flight conditions.

Nicole A Pettingill↗
NASA NTRS1987

Aeroelastic stability of bearingless rotors in forward flight

The finite element method was used to determine the dynamic stability of bearingless rotor blades (BR) in forward flight. The analysis was applied to four different BR configurations and the results were correlated with experimental data. The analysis was correlated with hover lag mode stability data for a simple three-blade BR rotor tested in various pitch link configurations. In addition, a more advanced BR which includes precone, blade twist, blade sweep, and a lag shear restraint is analyzed and compared to experimental data in both hover and forward flight.

Dull, Andrew L.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The effect of forward flight on the noise and flow field of inverted profile jets

Noise and flow field measurements are reported for an inverted profile coannular jet (where the annular jet speed exceeds the center jet speed) under simulated flight conditions. The annular and center jets were cold and both were operated subsonically. Forward flight was simulated by placing the coannular jet inside a larger open jet. Acoustic measurements show the effects of inverted profile shape and simulated flight on far field directivity, total radiated power, and spectral content. Measurements of total acoustic power demonstrate that the acoustic efficiency of inverted profile jets is about 3 dB less than the efficiency of 'top hat' profile jets, and that the noise decreases as the seventh power of the relative jet velocity in the limit of small flight velocity. Flow measurements demonstrate that the jet spreading parameter scales the thickness of the outer shear layer and the passage frequencies of the large turbulence scales. Comparisons between the turbulence time scales and the noise spectra suggest that coherent noise sources may become more important in forward flight.

Petersen, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1976

A critical examination of the flap-lag dynamics of helicopter rotor blades in hover and in forward flight

A critical examination of flap-lag stability of a centrally hinged, spring-restrained rigid blade in both hover and forward flight is presented. Several differences in the equations of motion for blade flap-lag stability in the existing literature are identified. A rigorous and systematic development of these equations for a rigid articulated blade in forward flight shows the existence of some linear aerodynamic coupling terms associated with blade steady-state flapping and lagging in the perturbation equations. The differences identified are shown to be associated with the order in which the flap and lag transformations are taken in developing the equations of motion. The implications of these differences on stability are examined, and it is shown that the pitch-lag coupling terms associated with a flap-lag hinge transformation sequence have a marked influence on flap-lag stability. Some qualitative considerations on the role of the assumed transformation sequence in the development of the flap-lag equations for a hingeless elastic blade are also given. On the basis of these considerations, it is shown that aerodynamic coupling terms associated with blade steady-state flapping and lagging similar to those found for the rigid blade will also appear in the equations for the elastic blade.

Kaza, K. R. V.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Rotor blade aeroelastic stability and response in forward flight

The aeroelastic stability and response problem of the coupled flap-lag-torsional dynamics of a hingeless rotor blade in forward flight is treated in a comprehensive manner. The spatial dependence of the partial differential, nonlinear, equations of motion is discretized using a multimodal Galerkin method. The aeroelastic problem is coupled with the trim state of the helicopter obtained from improved, representative, trim procedures. The nonlinear time dependent equilibrium position, or response, about which the equations are linearized is obtained by solving a sequence of linear periodic response problems, using quasi-linearization. Numerous results illustrating blade behavior in forward flight are presented.

Friedmann, P. P.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Application of the wide-field shadowgraph technique to helicopters in forward flight

A test was conducted to examine the feasibility of using the wide-field shadowgraph method for visualizing the wake of a small-scale helicopter rotor in forward flight. A wide range of test conditions were examined, including thrust and forward speed variations. Shadowgraphs from the side and top of the rotor were obtained. The visibility of the tip vortices using the shadowgraph method was documented for advance ratios up to 0.175. It was demonstrated that shadowgraphs of the rotor wake in forward flight can be used to obtain qualitative and quantitative information about wake geometry, wake/body interactions, and blade/vortex interactions. Video cameras were used for the first time to record the shadowgraphs. These provided several advantages compared to still cameras and greatly enhanced the capabilities of the shadowgraph method.

Light, Jeffrey S.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Coupled flap-lag-torsional dynamics of hingeless rotor blades in forward flight

The aeroelastic stability and response problem of the coupled flap-lag-torsional dynamics of an isolated hingeless rotor blade in forward flight is considered. Linear, quasi-steady aerodynamics below stall is included. The spatial dependence of the partial differential nonliner equations of motion is discretized using a multimodal Galerkin method. The nonlinear time dependent equilibrium position (steady state response) about which the equations are linearized is obtained by solving a sequence of linear periodic response problems (quasilinearization). Results illustrating blade behavior in forward flight for both soft-in-plane and stiff-in-plane designs are presented. Quasilinearization provides a clear indication of the cases when nonlinear terms due to moderate deflections are important. The results indicate that nonlinearities affect system stability much more than system response. This implies that for obtaining blade vibrations and loads, approximate analytical models based on linearized formulations could be employed, whereas for determining blade stability a more accurate nonlinear analysis would be required.

Friedmann, P. P.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The influence of dynamic inflow and torsional flexibility on rotor damping in forward flight from symbolically generated equations

The combined effects of blade torsion and dynamic inflow on the aeroelastic stability of an elastic rotor blade in forward flight are studied. The Helicopter Equations for Stability and Loads (HESL) program is extended to derive the governing equations of motion for the blade, and a Lagrangian formulation is used to obtain the equations in generalized coordinates. The program generates the steady-state and linearized perturbation equations in symbolic form and then codes them into FORTRAN subroutines. The coefficients for each equation and for each mode are identified through a numerical program; the latter can also be used to obtain the harmonic balance equations. The governing multiblade equations are derived explicitly using HESL. These equations can accommodate any number of elastic blade modes. Stability results are presented for several hingeless rotor blade structural models, and the influence of dynamic inflow in forward flight with an elastic hingeless rotor is investigated.

Reddy, T. S. R.↗