Numerical and experimental analysis on the helicopter rotor dynamic load controlled by the actively trailing edge flap

Reducing the rotor dynamic load is an important issue to improve the performance and reliability of a helicopter. The control mechanism of the actively controlled flap on the rotor dynamic load is numerically and experimentally investigated by a 3-blade helicopter rotor in this paper. In the aero-elastic numerical approach, the complex motion of the rotor such as the stretching, bending, torsion and pitching of the blade including the deflection of the actively controlled flap (ACF) are all taken into consideration in the structural formulation. The aerodynamic solution adopted the vortex lattice method combining with the free wake model, in which the influence of ACF on the free wake and the aerodynamic load on the blade is taken into account as well. While the experimental method of measuring hub loads and acoustic was accomplished by a rotor rig in a wind tunnel. The result shows that the 3/rev ACF actuation can reduce the $3\omega$ hub load by more than 50\% at maximum, which is significantly better than the 4/rev control. While 4/rev has greater potential to reduce BVI loads than 3/rev with $\mu=0.15$. Further mechanistic analysis shows that by changing the phase difference between the dynamic load on the flap and the rest of the blade, the peak load on the whole blade can be improved, thus achieving effective control of the hub dynamic load, the flap reaches the minimum angle of attack at 90°-100° azimuth under best control condition; when the BVI load is perfectly controlled, the flap reaches the minimum angle of attack at 140° azimuth, and by changing the circulation of the wake, the intensity of blade vortex interaction in the advancing side is improved. Moreover, an interesting finding in the optimal control of noise and vibration is that an overlap point exist on the motion patterns of the flap with different frequencies.

Aerodynamic Pressure Mapping Technique from CFD to FEM Model of N219 Winglet

Due to relatively complex geometry of N219 winglets, CFD simulations have to be conducted to predict the aerodynamic load by the structure in some critical flight conditions. Since the aerodynamic CFD model is not the same as the finite element model of the structure, there is a need to accurately transform the load data between the two models. This paper discusses a simple alternative technique to map pressure distribution from the mesh or face zone of a CFD simulation to an FEM model using a Matlab based in-house code program. The technique focuses on how an FEM shell element has same pressure value with its nearest CFD element. Although the cumulative forces sometimes give different result, the pressure distribution is highly accurate, moreover when the FEM model has smoother elements. Validation has been conducted by comparing with other pressure mapping technique of a commercial software Patran. The results show a good agreement where the present technique provide a more accurate result especially for the critical biggest load among the cumulative forces in the three-dimensional direction. The proposed technique is currently suitable to evaluate loading characteristics of semi monocoque structures. A further treatment of the technique for other types of structure is currently under development.

Research on Siding Mode Controller of High-Speed Maglev Train Under Aerodynamic Load

The high-speed maglev train will be subjected to extremely obvious aerodynamic load during operation, it will also be subjected to instantaneous aerodynamic impact load in the case of passing, which will bring extreme challenges to the suspension stability and safe operation of the train. It is necessary to consider the influence of aerodynamic load and shock wave in the design of suspension control algorithm. Traditional proportion integration differentiation (PID) control cannot follow the change of vehicle parameters or external disturbance, which is easy to cause suspension fluctuation and instability. In order to improve the suspension stability and vibration suppression of high-speed maglev train under aerodynamic load and impact, a controller based on sliding mode technique is designed in this paper, and in this controller, the deformation of the primary suspension is introduced to replace the aerodynamic load on the electromagnet. In order to verify the control performance of the designed controller, the dynamic simulation model of train with three vehicles is established, and the dynamic response of the train under the condition of passing in open air is calculated. Compared with the PID controller, it is verified that the sliding mode control (SMC) method proposed in this paper can effectively restrain the electromagnet fluctuation of the train under aerodynamic load.

Amplitude resonance response and feedback control of cantileverbeams with tip-mass under aerodynamic load

The dynamic of a cantilever beam with tip mass is studied under an aerodynamic loading. The effects of coupling is investigated by tacking into account the fluid flow. Using the multiple time scale method, the approximative solutions are found and the study of their stability is made by the Routh-Hurwitz stability criterion. The influence of parameters on the system is studied at the harmonic and subharmonic resonances. The results show that, the effects of tip mass can be neglected in harmonic resonance case ,while they are more important in subharmonic resonance cases. The results equally demonstrate that an increase of the stable state fluid velocity reduces the amplitude of vibrations. In addition, the hysteresis phenomenon studies show that it is principally induced by nonlinearity coefficients. Finally, time-delay feedback control is applied and the effects of controlling are observed on amplitude response curve at the harmonic resonance, from where we note that optimized choice of control parameters can be useful in controlling vibrations.

Effect of Cut-Out Shape on the Stresses in Aircraft Wing Ribs under Aerodynamic Load

Ribs in aircraft wings maintain the airfoil shape of the wing under aerodynamic loads and also support the resulting bending and shear loads that act on the wing. Aircrafts are designed for least weight and hence the wings are made of hollow torsion box and the ribs are designed with cut-outs to reduce the weight of the aircraft structure. These cut-outs on the ribs will lead to higher stresses and stress concentration that can lead to failure of the aircraft structures. The stresses depend on the shape of the cut-outs in the ribs and thus in the present work, the commercial software ANSYS was used to evaluate the stresses on the ribs with different shapes of cut-outs. Four different shapes of cut-out were considered to study the effect of cut-out shape on the stresses in the ribs. It was found that the best shape for the cut-outs on the ribs of wings to reduce weight is elliptical.

Stress Analysis of Composite Aircraft Wing using Coupled Fluid-Structural Analysis

Aircraft wings are designed with very low factor of safety to keep the aircraft weight minimum. Thus, for safe design of wings, stress analysis should be carried out under accurately estimated aerodynamic loads and this can be achieved only through coupled fluid-structure analysis. Moreover, modern aircraft wings are made of laminated composite structures and thus the purpose of this study is to employ ANSYS coupled fluid-structure analysis to find the best layup of composite wing of an aircraft that results in higher specific strength and specific stiffness. Firstly, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis has been carried out to find the actual aerodynamic load which is the pressure distribution around a three-dimensional wing. Then, this pressure distribution from CFD was used as a load input for detailed static structural analysis of the wing. Initially, strength and stiffness of an isotropic wing is evaluated and then the material of the wing was changed to composite laminates to achieve better structural performance with higher strength and stiffness to weight ratio. Stress analysis was carried out for different layups to predict the optimum layup that results in high strength and stiffness coupled with the least weight and it was found that the wing made of symmetric cross-ply laminate performs the best.

Structural Sizing and Topology Optimization Based on Weight Minimization of a Variable Tapered Span-Morphing Wing for Aerodynamic Performance Improvements

This article proposes the integration of structural sizing, topology, and aerodynamic optimization for a morphing variable span of tapered wing (MVSTW) with the aim to minimize its weight. In order to evaluate the feasibility of the morphing wing optimization, this work creates a numerical environment by incorporating simultaneous structural sizing and topology optimization based on its aerodynamic analysis. This novel approach is proposed for an MVSTW. A problem-specific optimization approach to determine the minimum weight structure of the wing components for its fixed and moving segments is firstly presented. The optimization was performed using the OptiStruct solver inside HyperMesh. This investigation seeks to minimize total structure compliance while maximizing stiffness in order to satisfy the structural integrity requirements of the MVSTW. The aerodynamic load distribution along the wingspan at full wingspan extension and maximum speed were considered in the optimization processes. The wing components were optimized for size and topology, and all of them were built from aluminum alloy 2024-T3. The optimization results show that weight savings of up to 51.2% and 55.7% were obtained for fixed and moving wing segments, respectively. Based on these results, the optimized variable-span morphing wing can perform certain flight missions perfectly without experiencing any mechanical failures.

Influence of the Flexible Tower on Aeroelastic Loads of the Wind Turbine

The finite element discretization of a tower system based on the two-node Euler-Bernoulli beam is carried out by taking the cubic Hermite polynomial as the form function of the beam unit, calculating the structural characteristic matrix of the tower system, and establishing the wind turbine-nacelle-tower multi-degree-of-freedom finite element numerical model. The equation for calculating the aerodynamic load for any nacelle attitude angle is derived. The effect of the flexible tower vibration feedback on the aerodynamic load of the wind turbine is studied. The results show that, when the stiffness of the tower is large, the effect of having tower vibration feedback or not on the aeroelastic load of the wind turbine is small. For the more flexible tower system, wind-induced vibration time-varying feedback will cause larger aeroelastic load variations, especially the top of the tower overturning moment, thus causing a larger impact on the dynamic behavior of the tower downwind and crosswind. As the flexibility of the tower system increases, the interaction between tower vibration and pneumatic load is also gradually increasing. Taking into account the influence of flexible towers on the aeroelastic load of a wind turbine can help predict the pneumatic load of a wind turbine more accurately and improve the efficiency of wind energy utilization on the one hand and analyze the dynamic behavior of the flexible structure of a wind turbine more accurately on the other hand, which is extremely beneficial to the structural optimization of wind turbine.