Achieving Automated Rotor Track and Balance through use of Active Trim Tab and Pitch Control Rod Technologies

摘要

Performing manual main rotor track and balance (RTB) of helicopter rotors is an expensive and time-consuming task. Multiple test flights across different regimes often produce a track and balance solution effective at all ground and flight conditions but optimal at none. The opportunity to save time and money, while maximizing vibration reduction, makes automated RTB a particularly attractive endeavor. For the past five years, Sikorsky Aircraft worked with the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center's Aviation Development Directorate (ADD), ZF Luftfahrttechnik GMBH (ZFL), and Invercon, LLC, to develop a flight-ready system capable of automating and optimizing RTB. To reach this goal, the Autonomous Sustainment Technologies for Rotorcraft Operations (ASTRO) Rotors program focused on combining active trim tab and pitch control rod technologies with an active vibration feedback control system. This paper provides an overview of the ASTRO Rotors program, outlines the work completed to date, discusses development of pitch control rod and active trim tab technologies, and demonstrates the effectiveness of combining an active vibration control system with these technologies to primarily reduce fixed-system 1/rev vibration, along with 2/rev and 3/rev vibration, during ground and flight conditions.