HELICOPTER ROTOR SYSTEM AND DESIGN

-Sumeet -Guide -Mrs.

Ghodke

S. K. Veer

BASIC INTRODUCTION

THIS IS WHAT HELICOPTER IS!

ACTUAL HELICOPTER

FORCES ON HELICOPTER
When the blades are spinning then the natural reaction to that is for the fuselage of the helicopter to start spinning in the opposite direction to the rotors. If this torque isn't controlled, the helicopter would just spin round hopelessly! So to beat the reaction of the torque, different systems are used and is connected by rods and gears to the main rotor so that it turns whenever the main rotor is spinning.

REPRESENTATION OF FORCES

MAIN ROTOR SYSTEM

HELICOPTER CONTROLS AT COCKPIT

SWASH PLATE CONTROLS

SWASH PLATE MODEL

TO THE VIDEO

STABILIZER BAR
Stability could be increased significantly with the addition of a stabilizer bar perpendicular to the two blades The stabilizer bar has weighted ends which cause the bar to stay relatively stable in the plane of rotation The stabilizer bar is linked with the swash plate in such a manner as to reduce the effect of external forces on the rotor The result is a much more stable rotor system which eases the workload of the pilot to maintain control of the aircraft

CLASSIFICATION OF MAIN ROTOR SYSTEM

Rigid Semi rigid Fully articulated Engineered combination of the above

THE ANTI-TORQUE EFFECT

Most helicopters have a single main rotor but require a separate rotor to overcome torque This is accomplished through a various ways

1. TAIL ROTOR
The tail rotor is a smaller rotor mounted so that it rotates vertically or nearvertically at the end of the tail of a traditional single-rotor helicopter.

2. DUCTED FAN
ducted fan mounted at the end of the tail boom of the helicopter and used in place of a tail rotor. Ducted fan can have a smaller size than a conventional tail rotor

3. NOTAR

NOTAR, an acronym for NO TAil Rotor

4. TIP JETS

Another single main rotor configuration without a tail rotor is the tip jet rotor, where the main rotor is not driven by the mast, but from nozzles on the rotor blade tips; which are either pressurized from a fuselage-mounted gas turbine or have their own turbojet, ramjet or rocket thrusters

5. TANDEM

Tandem rotors are two horizontal main rotor assemblies mounted one behind the other

6. COAXIAL

Coaxial rotors are a pair of rotors mounted one above the other on the same shaft and turning in opposite directions

7. INTERMESHING

Intermeshing rotors on a helicopter are a set of two rotors turning in opposite directions, with each rotor mast mounted on the helicopter with a slight angle to the other so that the blades intermesh without colliding

8. TRANSVERSE

Transverse rotors are mounted on the end of wings or outriggers, perpendicular to the body of the aircraft

9. QUAD ROTOR
A quad rotor helicopter has four rotors An "X" configuration quad rotor has a front-left rotor, a front-right rotor, a rear-left rotor, and a rear-right rotor

MAIN ROTOR BLADE

AIRFOIL, LIFT AND DRAG

Probably the single most important rotor design parameter is its Lift/Drag ratio, which should be as high as possible

BLADE TAPPER
When a blade rotates, each point on it travels at a different speed. The further away from the root, higher the velocity. This means that the contribution to lift and drag of every point on the blade differs, with each aspect getting larger when moving closer to the rotor tip. Clearly, the lift distribution over the blade is not constant. This is not a desirable situation, because the contribution diminishes when getting closer to the root. Tapering the blade also contributes to achieving a more evenly spaced lift distribution.

BLADE TAPPER

BLADE ROOT CUT OUT

Blade twist and taper leads to large angles of attack and large blade surfaces at the root. However, close to the root, the blade is travelling over the hull, so the generated downwash does not contribute to helicopter thrust. For this reason, rotor blades are often cut out near the root.

TWISTING MOMENTS

Rotor blades are constantly strained by moments that try to twist them. This twisting has its origins in the moments which exist between the centre of pressure (due to the aerodynamic forces) and the mass centroid over the chord line. The blade designer must take these twisting moments into account by designing a blade with high torsional stiffness. He must also ensure that the mass centroid is located ahead of the centre of pressure for all blade angles (in its operational range). In this way, lift tends to lower the angle of attack: a stable condition.

BLADE TIP SPEED AND NOISE REDUCTION

When the blades are very long or the helicopter is designed with a high rotor RPM, the blade tip speed can become extremely high. When the tip speed reaches the speed of sound, pressure waves come into existence, which causes rotor drag. A high tip speed is also the single most important design parameter influencing generated noise levels. It is, therefore, logical to expect more designs with lower RPM and very efficient (larger L/D ratio) performance blades. In this way, blade efficiency is traded off for noise reduction instead of better flight performance.

CONSTRUCTION OF BLADE

Some important design requirements for blades are high torsional stiffness and a good L/D ratio

Questions???

Thank you!!!