Aeroelastic Tailoring of Helicopter Blades

The dynamic loads transmitted from the rotor to the airframe are responsible for vibrations, discomfort and alternate stress of components. A new and promising way to minimize vibration is to reduce dynamic loads at their source by performing an aeroelastic optimization of the rotor. This optimization is done thanks to couplings between the flapwise-bending motion and the torsion motion. The impact of elastic couplings (composite anisotropy) on the blade dynamic behaviour and on dynamic loads are evaluated in this paper. Firstly, analytical results, based on a purely linear modal approach, are given to understand the influence of those couplings in terms of frequency placement, aerodynamic lift load and vertical shear modification. Then, those elastic couplings are introduced on a simplified but representative blade (homogeneous beam with constant chord) and results are presented.