The effect of varying stiffness in CH-47 rotor blades on Rotor Track and Balance

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

M.C.H. van der Aa Aerospace Engineering

Contributors

A. Anisimov Structural Integrity & Composites - Aerospace Engineering (mentor)
R.M. Groves Structural Integrity & Composites - Aerospace Engineering (graduation committee member)
Rob Brink Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre NLR (graduation committee member)
Arjan de Jong Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre NLR (graduation committee member)
Faculty
Aerospace Engineering, Aerospace Engineering
Copyright: © 2021 Mike van der Aa
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Published Date

25-10-2021

Language

English

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

This work is a part of the Automated Rotor Blade Inspection (ARBI) project. ARBI aims to improve the rotorcraft RTB process with novel rotor blade measurement equipment. The objective of this research is to investigate how the variation in structural properties of the rotor blades composite structure affects the dynamical response during the RTB process. It is hypothesized that the variation in stiffness and shift in the center of gravity of the structure is caused by in-service defects and repairs.
The results of the NDI inspections give a detailed overview of what type of non-uniformities are found in CH-47 rotor blades. A 2D analytical model is developed to quantify structural blade properties of blades that contain non-uniformities. This model provides the ability to determine the impact of these non-uniformities on the structural parameters based on NDI results and helps to improve the FEM model that is used for RTB simulation.