Manufacturing and Testing of a Variable Chord Extension for Helicopter Rotor Blades

Balzarek, Christoph; Kalow, Steffen; Riemenschneider, Johannes; Rivero, Andres E.

doi:10.3390/act11020053

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Compared with traditional spoiler actuators or pressurized elements, shape memory alloy actuators have the advantages of small size and high controllability [ 83 ]. Balzarek et al [ 84 ] attempted to integrate SMA actuators into the helicopter’s wings to form an elastic skin for better hover flight capabilities. On this basis, Ameduri et al [ 85 ] systematically studied the influence of different parameters on the adaptive deformation ability of rotating wings and established a database that can be used to predict model behavior in subsequent related studies.…”

Section: Shape Memory Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Prospect of Smart Materials and Structures for Aerospace Sensing Systems and Applications

Wang

Xiang

et al. 2023

Sensors

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The rapid development of the aviation industry has put forward higher and higher requirements for material properties, and the research on smart material structure has also received widespread attention. Smart materials (e.g., piezoelectric materials, shape memory materials, and giant magnetostrictive materials) have unique physical properties and excellent integration properties, and they perform well as sensors or actuators in the aviation industry, providing a solid material foundation for various intelligent applications in the aviation industry. As a popular smart material, piezoelectric materials have a large number of application research in structural health monitoring, energy harvest, vibration and noise control, damage control, and other fields. As a unique material with deformation ability, shape memory materials have their own outstanding performance in the field of shape control, low-shock release, vibration control, and impact absorption. At the same time, as a material to assist other structures, it also has important applications in the fields of sealing connection and structural self-healing. Giant magnetostrictive material is a representative advanced material, which has unique application advantages in guided wave monitoring, vibration control, energy harvest, and other directions. In addition, giant magnetostrictive materials themselves have high-resolution output, and there are many studies in the direction of high-precision actuators. Some smart materials are summarized and discussed in the above application directions, aiming at providing a reference for the initial development of follow-up related research.

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Section: Shape Memory Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Prospect of Smart Materials and Structures for Aerospace Sensing Systems and Applications

Wang

Xiang

et al. 2023

Sensors

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“…Fatigue is the process of localised, progressive, and permanent structural changes in one or more areas of the blade under stress that produce variations in stress and strain and may culminate in cracking or complete failure after a sufficient number of oscillations [11,12]. The vital components (blades) of the helicopter structure are subject to particularly rigorous testing, as they cannot be doubled and their failure can lead to serious accidents [13,14]. Another method used since the early stages of aeronautical products is finite element analysis (FEA).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manufacturing Process of Helicopter Tail Rotor Blades from Composite Materials Using 3D-Printed Moulds

Torpan,

Zaharia

2024

Applied Sciences

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Conventional processes require a mould for the manufacture of each test product, which often results in high costs but is ideal for large series of products. In contrast, for prototypes, additive manufacturing processes are a suitable low-cost time-saving alternative. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the capabilities of 3D-printed tooling in a real-life scenario for composite blades with low production numbers and prototypes in order to allow development and production costs to decrease and to also reduce lead times in the early phases of new projects. The 3D printing process is economically advantageous in terms of production costs for the composite blade mould, reducing the cost three times compared to the conventional manufacturing process. To obtain the composite helicopter blade, the following phases were carried out: the starting design of the mould, 3D printing and assembly of the mould sections, and blade manufacturing. The economic analysis of the two mould manufacturing methods shows an approximately equal ratio between the manufacturing costs of the 3D-printed mould and the manufacturing costs of the blade, whereas in the conventional processes, the costs for mould manufacturing represent 75% of the total cost and the rest (25%) of the cost is spent on blade manufacturing.

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“…The ambition of this project was to mitigate the environmental impact of the rotorcraft, implementing innovative morphing architectures on the main rotor of the Bo105 rotorcraft, predicting their impact through dedicated tools, and finally demonstrating them in a representative environment, such as a wind tunnel and whirl tower. The developed concepts involved the adaptive variation of twist [25], chord, and curvature [26][27][28]. Still, within the same theme, Bell Helicopter presented, at the Heli-Expo in Dallas in 2017, the FCX-001 aircraft, including, among others, innovative systems for blade morphing, highlighting the growing interest of the aerospace industry in the topic [29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling of a SMA Blade Twist System Suited for Demonstration in Wind Tunnel and Whirl Tower Plants

Ameduri,

Ciminello,

Concilio

et al. 2023

Applied Sciences

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In this work, the modeling of a demonstrator of a morphing system aimed at altering the twist of a rotorcraft blade is presented. The device was conceived for two different representative environments: the wind tunnel plant of the University of Bristol and the whirl tower facility of the DLR, for tests in fixed and wing rotary configurations, respectively. The concept, conceived and matured within the European Project of SABRE, is based on shape memory alloys, SMA. This technology was selected for its intrinsic compactness and solidity, which better meet the requirements of a typical blade structure, being extremely flexible and subjected to relevant inertial loads. A dedicated structural layout was conceived to favor the working modality of the SMA torsional system; this architecture was tailored both to absorb the typical actions occurring onto a blade and to assure a certain level of pre-twist necessary for the SMA strain recovery. The activation of the SMA was performed through an electrothermal helicoidal coil wrapped around it. A dedicated network of sensors was integrated within the structure to measure the impact of the different actions on the blade system. This subsystem, functional to shape reconstruction operations, is capable of splitting the contribution of the loads to pure twist and flapping. At first, the requirements imposed by the two test facilities were elaborated together to the operational needs, arriving at the issue of the most relevant specifications. Secondly, the conceptual and advanced design were considered, demonstrating, first, the feasibility of the concept and, then, its compliance with the test environment. The work ends with two different layouts, conceived respectively for the tests in fixed and rotary wing configurations. For both of them, a performance estimate was addressed, and a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages was presented.

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Manufacturing and Testing of a Variable Chord Extension for Helicopter Rotor Blades

Cited by 8 publications

References 9 publications

Development and Prospect of Smart Materials and Structures for Aerospace Sensing Systems and Applications

Development and Prospect of Smart Materials and Structures for Aerospace Sensing Systems and Applications

Manufacturing Process of Helicopter Tail Rotor Blades from Composite Materials Using 3D-Printed Moulds

Modelling of a SMA Blade Twist System Suited for Demonstration in Wind Tunnel and Whirl Tower Plants

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