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Analysis of tiltrotor whirl flutter in time and frequency domain

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Abstract

The whirl flutter phenomenon in a rotor is induced by in-plane hub forces, and imposes a serious limit on the forward speed. In this paper, based on Greenberg’s model, quasi-steady and unsteady aerodynamic forces are formulated to examine the whirl flutter stability for a three-bladed rotor without flexible wing modes. Numerical results are obtained in both time and frequency domains. Generalized eigenvalue solution is utilized to estimate the whirl flutter stability in the frequency domain, and Runge-Kutta method is used to analyze it in time domain. The effects of varying the pylon spring stiffness and the swashplate geometric control coupling upon the flutter boundary are investigated. An optimum pitch-flap coupling parameter is discovered through the parametric study. Aeroelastic stability boundaries are estimated with the three different aerodynamic models. It is found that the analysis with the full unsteady aerodynamics predicts the highest flutter speed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schoole of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Institute of Advanced Aerospace Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-742, Korea

    Taeseong Kim & SangJoon Shin

  2. Loads and Dynamics, Boeing Commercial Airplane Company, Seattle, WA, 98124-2207, USA

    Taehyoun Kim

Authors
  1. Taeseong Kim
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  2. SangJoon Shin
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  3. Taehyoun Kim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to SangJoon Shin.

Additional information

This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Hong Hee Yoo

Taeseong Kim received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Korea Aviation University, Korea, in 2004. He then received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Seoul National University in 2006 and 2009, respectively. Dr. Kim is currently a Research Scientist at Wind Energy Division at Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy in Roskilde, Denmark. His research interests include aeroelasticity, wind turbine dynamics, rotorcraft dynamics, and structural dynamics.

SangJoon Shin received S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999 and 2001, respectively. From 1991–1996, he worked at the Helicopter Systems Department, Korean Agency for Defense Development. From 2001–2003, he worked at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Since 2003, he has been a professor at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in Seoul National University. His research interests include aeroelasticty, rotorcraft dynamics, and smart structures.

Taehyoun Kim earned a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. Since 1996 he has worked in Loads and Dynamics Group of Boeing Commercial Aircraft, Seattle, Washington, USA. Prior to joining the Boeing Company he worked in Computational Mechanics Laboratory at Georgia Institute of Technology. Since 2005, he has been teaching a short course, “Computational Methods in Aeroelasticity” at SDM Conference, Boeing Ed Wells, National Aerospace Laboratory in India, and NASA Langley. Dr. Kim’s specialties are aeroservoelasticity/structural dynamics, computational and experimental methods in aeroelasticity, system identification and model reduction of large-scaled dynamic systems, and composite structures.

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Kim, T., Shin, S. & Kim, T. Analysis of tiltrotor whirl flutter in time and frequency domain. J Mech Sci Technol 23, 3281–3291 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-009-1002-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-009-1002-3

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