21st Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Melbourne, Australia, 13-18 September, 1998
Paper ICAS-98-1.4.1

EFFECT OF MAIN ROTOR CONFIGURATION AND PROPULSION SYSTEM DYNAMICS ON HELICOPTER HANDLING QUALITIES

Guglieri G., Quagliotti F. B.
Turin Polytechnical University, Italy

Keywords: rotor configuration, propulsion system dynamics, helicopter handling

The main objective of this paper is the study of the influence of propulsion system on the handling qualities of an articulated and a hingeless rotor helicopter in straight flight. The configuration selected is representative of a typical medium-size helicopter. Validation results of the basic helicopter simulation model are also presented. ' The mathematical model used in this study is a nonlinear blade element type model (the coupled flap-lag dynamics of each blade is modeled) that includes rotor, fuselage, main rotor inflow, actuators and propulsion system dynamics. The additional model of propulsion system includes the contributions of engine-rotor inertial coupling and shaft torsional stiffness. Results are provided for transfer functions, poles, bandwidths and delays at different airspeeds. The attention is focused on longitudinal, lateral and heave response, in order to evaluate the effects of propulsion system dynamics on flying qualities and prescribed ADS-33 parameters.

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