LECTURE NOTES ON HELICOPTER AERODYNAMICS Academic Programme On Aircraft Engineering, Avionics and Manufacturing Technology for HAL Design Trainees July 19 - November 30, 2007Landmarks in the historical development of helicopter 15" Century: 18" Century: 19" Century: 20" Century: Leonardo da Vinci sketched a machine for vertical flight using a screw type propeller. Sir George Cayley constructed models powered by elastic elements and made some sketches. The problem of cheap, reliable and light engine is still not resolved. W. H. Phillips (England, 1842) constructed a 10kg steam powered model. Enrico Forlanini (Italy, 1878) built a steam driven model. It climbed to a height of 12m and stayed aloft for about 20 minutes. (i) Renard (France, 1904) built a helicopter using a two cylinder engine. (ii) Paul Cornu (France, 1907) constructed the first man- carrying helicopter with two contra-rotating rotors of 6m diameter. The weight was 260kg. It used a 24Hp engine. It achieved a height of 0.3m for about 20 seconds. First successful manned helicopter flight. (iii) Juan _de la Cierva (Spain, 1920-30) developed autogyro. A propeller is used for propulsive force. A rotor is developed for generating lift. Cierva incorporated flapping hinges in his design. He was the first to use flapping hinges successfully. (iv) Igor Sikorsky (USA, 1939-41) built the modern helicopter (VS-300) in 1941, It was a helicopter with a 3-bladed main rotor and a tail rotor. Several hundreds were produced. (vy) Piercy (1977) developed the shock-free transonic aerofoil and it became possible to increase the forward speed of helicopter greatly.INTRODUCTION machines can be broadly classified, as given below, Flying machines Lighter than aii Heavier than air Fee Balloons it Balloons Fixed Wing Aircraft Rotary wing Aircraft | Seaplane Land plane AmphibianUse of helicopters Helicopters are used for both military and civil purposes : Military 1. D bye Defense helicopter for direct support of infantry. These Helicopters are provided with armaments such as machine guns cannons, missies ete. Air observation post List Reconnaissance and communications Search and Rescue (where hover is essential) — Anti-submarine activity"Comparison between Helicopter and Aircraft Helicopter 1. Helicopter is less efficient in power and fuel requirements. 2. Maximum speed achieved is 400 km/hour. 3. It can hover. 4, It can take off vertically Aircraft It is more efficient in power and fuel requirements.Chapter - 1 Characteristics of Main Rotor Characteristics of the main rotor in *Single-Rotor’ helicopter configuration are described in details in the following sections. a) Pitch (0) "The blade pitch angle (0) is the angle between the plane perpendicuiar to the rotor shaft ‘and the chord line of a reference station on the blade (Fig. 1). For a hovering helicopter. angle of incidence (i) is different from 6. As the rotor blade rotates, a downward velocity (v,) is induced. The resultant velocity Vp is a combination of this induced velocity (v,) and the linear velocity (Qr) in the plane of rotation ata distance r from the hub, as shown in Fig. 1. The angle between induced velocity (v,) and linear velocity (Qr) is defined as inflow angle @ and the angle of incidence (i) d from @ by the inflow angle @. ‘ ‘ o- ¢) Change of Pitch i. Collective change of pitch: Within limits of stall, C, increases with increase in 0. If the pitch of all the blades are increased (decreased) simultaneously, the overall lift and hence thrust increases (decreases). Therefore, changing the thrust to values more ght will cause the helicopter to climb or descend. The means of than or less than w achieving this change of pitch of all blades simultaneously is called “Collective’ piteh change. The pilot uses collective pitch lever for this change. Cyclic change of pitch: With cyclic pitch lever. the pilot can increase the blade pitch at one azimuth position (A) and decrease it at a diagonally opposite position (B). as shown in Fig. 3. Asa result all the blades coming to position A steadily have increasing pitch values those receding from A and going to B have steadily decreasing values. This causes increased angle of attack at position A and decreased angle of attack at position B. This cyclic variation of pitch along azimuth position is called “Cyclic” pitch change. This cyclic pitch change by using cyclic pitch lever helps in many ways. It is one of the most effective way of changing the direction of rotor thrust since this cyclic variation of pitch effectively amounts to tilting of rotor cone. Both collective and cyclic pitch change are accomplished by pilot system, described later.4) Flapping hinge: The Napping hinge solves the problem of rolling moment when the helicopter is in forward flight. In hover, pitch is maintained the same throughout the azimuth position. However, when the rotor moves forward horizontally at a velocity V, the advancing blade (at y = 90°) is at a velocity V + Qr and the retreating blade (at w = : 270°) is at V-Qr. Thus, ifthe pitch is same, the advancing blade gives higher lift than the retreating blade. This production of unequal lifis on either side of the helicopter would result in undesirable rolling moment and excessive alternating air blades on the blade One way of correcting this is by setting the pitch on the advancing side lower and the retreating side higher by use of some sort of lateral control. The alternative way is to introduce flapping blades by use of flapping hing (Fig. 4). as proposed by Cierva. With the blades free to flap the moment problem is solved. The blades will move in such a manner as to seek equilibrium; that is, in such a way as to make the summation of the moments about the flapping hinge zero. As the blade advances and develops more lift, it begins to flap upward. This then introduces a downward vertical component of velocity in relation to the blade which reduces its angle of incidence and hence the lift of the advancing blade. As it retreats, the opposite is true, for a downward flapping of the blade produces an increased lift (Fig. 5). The changes in speed in advancing and retreating blades are compensated —— ; changes in angle of incidence (and lift) and net rolling moment about Haoping; The blade is hinged about a vertical axis near the center of rotation so that is free to oscillate or “lead and lag” in the plane of rotation (Fig. 6). This flexibility makes the net moment about drag hinge zero. Both the flapping and drag hinge (in a so-called fully articulated rotor) is shown in Fig. 7. iif) Feathering Hinge: Pitch of the blades can be increased or decreased by the pilot simultaneously or differentially (collective and cyclic pitch change) by the use of feathering hinge. ©) Types of Rotors Three fundamental types of rotors have been developed so far (Fig. 8) : a. Rigid rotor: In these rotors. the blades are connected rigidly to the shaft. Such rotors do not have either flapping or drag hinge. Usually, such rotors are two-bladed. b. See-saw (or teetering) rotor: Rotors in which blades are rigidly interconnected to a hub but the hub is free to tilt with respect to shaft. These rotors are two bladed. The blades are mounted as a single unit on a “see-saw” or “teetering” hinge. No drag hinges are fitted and therefore lead-lag motion is not permitted. However, bending moments my still be reduced by under-stinging the rotor.f) Mechanics of Rotor Control In the case of the conventional single rotor helicopter the control is achieved mainly by the tilt of the main rotor thrust. Now the problem is to how to tilt the thrust of the main rotor. One way to do this is to tilt the hub of either a rigid or lapping rotor with respect to the fuselage. In the normal engine driven helicopter it is mechanically awkward to tilt the hub since the hub is a rotating structure to which large torque loads are applied The most common way of achieving this is by means of a swash-plate system (Fig. 9) vstem consists of two parts: one rotating and the other fixed. This system provides change in both collective and cyclic pitch: i) Collective pitch change: A collective pitch change is applied by raising the fixed swash plate vertically, which raises the moving swash plate through the same distance thus ensuring that pitch of all blades changes by the same amount. This change in pitch is independent of azimuthal position ii.) Cyclic pitch change: If the fixed plate is tilted angularly, the moving swash plate is also titled by the same value. This increases the pitch of one blade in one azimuthal position and the pitch of the blade at diametrically opposite position will decrease by 0.85 C. = 0 to 0.03 Shock free flow Retreating blade: | | Cp <0.013 Ginx > 112 M=0.3 to 0.35 No separation Maneuver M=05 Creer as : Shock free flow General 2D Test Condition Re=5x 10° The aerofoil designed must conform to the two transonic design requirements (high speed flight and manenver) which simultaneously satisfying stringent subsonic (hover) requirements as mentioned in the above table. “a high, sper and maneuver. "There are two possibilities in the design process. One is to calculate a suitable shock free shape for a high Cy, at Mach number 0.5 and then modify parts of such a basic aerofoil optimize towards hover. The other possibility is to start from low speed and ogtniaghat shock free transonic flow is a real transonic characteristics was given by Piere He found that shockwaves can be possibility was proved experimentally by Piere reduced in strength and even eliminated by designing for a “peaky” type of pressure distribution. ‘The first “advanced” aerofvil for helicopter rotor is due to Wortmann who .ipplied the speaky” principle to improve the transonic characteristics, Since the Kemp & “ierey et al have developed other aerofoils designed exclusively for helicopter rotor. Secondly, though the flow through the rotor is of three-dimensional and unsteady nature, it has been verified that the performance of a rotor depends strongly on the two- dimensional steady characteristics of the rotor profiles. In other words, the performance of a helicopter rotor in a given flight condition can be improved by improving the characteristics of the rotor aerofoil selected in the two-dimensional steady flow condition. Overall Design Features of Conventional Helicopter Rotor 1. Profile used IACA0012,NACA23012,New advanced aerofoils _ 2. Thickness ratio 19% - 18% 8 to 48 kg/m? depending on the type of helicopters Majority are loaded between 10-20 kg/m? j & +Front of helicopterHelicopter motion Advancing blade Retreating bladeV+Or (a) Advancing blade (flapping up reduces angle of incidence)(a) Drag hinge with offset 2“Flopping hinge Lag hinge Axis of rotation Fig. 7 Hlapping and drag hinge (in a fully articulatedBUONUDAUOD UF pasn tuaysds aynyd YsUag 6 “Bip (s0ys yypm Buyjojos U4 UMOD puo da sasouy PAIS YL WYIY/IDg wr wspoyzeur Supsoiysod jo2494 arays yoqid aauzayon -2b0/asnf Of paxy tuojuoYyd) 3502 1039 (AYO2UI9A 4018 Of 10 40104 Of $OU 409 Hf Of ft MONO Y2IGH == SJOGUNB UO PazunOWw) Z40/7 YSOMS LAMOT (PUD ani1931/0: | s100-09 701]U09 5 j041q- ab psimy anyon. a g i sbony oN satay youd anj22yor spots 3 anieay \ (Pel 810 SajQ/d ysoms uaym Ayo2y249 ay Ft ee tape 2n0Us pun ‘anexs yoyid aayoayjo Ay Ce tees on penow $1 Suss0 424201 0 191089 shel ite Ps ayn zaysabo} on anow syuy saddn) wo 434204 Surp0foey-+ A (sapoyq bury204 sop yqoysnlpo) ye sag). 4 ope F~"-bu09g [S0Yp ng "Ne seo buddoy - Su104 ayvoa YU eptyg sojoxyAPUG O1O4 SHOLIEA [| “BLL “suLIO} urd opr]q JO1OI DAN UosoIday Lt BIZ pesado puo syblIo44s PEeUiguiog