A Case Study of the Unsteady Response of a Hingeless Helicopter Rotor Blade

The helicopter is an essential means of transport for numerous tasks including carrying passengers and equipment, providing air medical services, firefighting, and other military and civil tasks. While in operation, the nature of the unsteady aerodynamic environment surrounding the rotor blades gives rise to a significant amount of vibration to the helicopter. In this study, the unsteady forced response of the Bo 105 hingeless helicopter rotor blade is investigated at the forward flight in terms of the coupled flapping, lead-lag, and torsional deformations. The mathematical model for the steady-state response of the rotor blade is modified to include the unsteady airfoil behavior by using the Theodorsen’s lift deficiency function for three degrees of freedom of motion. The nonlinear mathematical model is solved by the generalized method of lines in terms of the time-varying deflections of the rotor blade. The unsteady airloads are found to create larger deformations compared to that of the steady-state condition for a given advance ratio. The azimuth locations of the peak loadings also vary with different degrees of freedom. The first three natural frequencies and mode shapes of the rotor blade are presented. The model for the forced response analysis is validated by finite element results.