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The Art of the Helicopter John Watkinson - Karatunov.net

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Introduction to helicopter dynamics 103<br />

Fig. 3.34 (a) A blade element encountering a vortex from an earlier blade will experience first an increase in<br />

angle <strong>of</strong> attack (a), <strong>the</strong>n a reduction (b). <strong>The</strong> variations in angle <strong>of</strong> attack produce a pressure dipulse (c) rapid<br />

enough to be audible as blade slap.<br />

in <strong>the</strong> case <strong>of</strong> lateral (in-plane) directions <strong>the</strong> vibration frequencies beat or heterodyne<br />

with <strong>the</strong> rotor frequency to produce sum and difference frequencies.<br />

<strong>The</strong> concept <strong>of</strong> sidebands was discussed in section 2.11, but <strong>the</strong> result can be demonstrated<br />

graphically. It is possible conceptually to replace <strong>the</strong> blade generating in-plane<br />

vibrations due to modulation <strong>of</strong> its root pull with a device generating <strong>the</strong> same vibration.<br />

This consists <strong>of</strong> a pair <strong>of</strong> contra-rotating eccentrics called a Lanchester exciter shown in<br />

Figure 3.35(a) which produces linear sinusoidal vibration. Figure 3.35(b) shows that if<br />

<strong>the</strong> rotor blades vibrate radially at <strong>the</strong> second harmonic (two-per) this can be simulated<br />

by an exciter which makes two revolutions with respect to <strong>the</strong> blade in one rotor revolution.<br />

<strong>The</strong> result is that one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> eccentrics makes three revolutions with respect to <strong>the</strong><br />

hull whilst <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r makes only one. Thus a two-per in-plane blade vibration results in<br />

three-per and one-per at <strong>the</strong> hub in stationary co-ordinates. Third harmonic vibration<br />

produces four-per and two-per vibration in stationary co-ordinates and so on.<br />

<strong>The</strong> discussion so far has considered <strong>the</strong> action <strong>of</strong> individual blades. However, in<br />

practice <strong>the</strong> hub will vectorially sum all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> forces and moments acting on it. Vectorial<br />

summation must consider <strong>the</strong> phase <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> contributions from each blade. Clearly <strong>the</strong><br />

phase difference between <strong>the</strong> blades is given by 360 ◦ divided by <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> blades.<br />

<strong>The</strong> overall result must <strong>the</strong>n also depend on <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> blades in <strong>the</strong> rotor. If <strong>the</strong><br />

blades are identical, and experience <strong>the</strong> same forces as <strong>the</strong>y turn, <strong>the</strong>y will develop<br />

<strong>the</strong> same vibration, except that <strong>the</strong> phase will be different for each blade. If, however,<br />

one blade has different characteristics to <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs, a one-per function may result.<br />

It is interesting to see how <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> blades affects <strong>the</strong> spectrum <strong>of</strong> vibration and<br />

how this effect is different for in-plane vibrations. Figure 3.36(a) depicts a two-bladed<br />

rotor and shows a graph <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fundamental flapping for each blade (one-per) and <strong>the</strong><br />

second harmonic (two-per). Note that <strong>the</strong> two blades are 180 ◦ apart and so <strong>the</strong> one-per<br />

waveforms are in anti-phase and cancel. As one-per flapping is <strong>the</strong> result <strong>of</strong> tilting <strong>the</strong><br />

disc this is no surprise and remains true for any number <strong>of</strong> blades. However, note that<br />

<strong>the</strong> second harmonic flapping <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> two blades is in-phase and will <strong>the</strong>refore add.

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