Helicopter blade morphing strategies aimed at mitigating environmental impact Strategie aktywnego kształtowania profilu łopat helikoptera w celu redukcjinegatywnego wpływu ich pracy na środow

摘要

The requirement of mitigating the environmental impact of helicopters has beenaddressed globally within the FRIENDCOPTER Project in the sen- se that severalaspects (such as noise abatement, vibration reduction, fuel consumption) havebeen studied in parallel with different approaches among which there is theactive blade control. In the work at hand, attention is paid on two topics aimedat mitigating helicopter environmental impact through a morphing strategy: theaerodynamic optimization of a blade section who- se camber can be affected by anactuator and the design of a SMA based static twist concept, aimed at extendingthe helicopter flight envelope. The latter device is based on a SMA rod which isintegrated in the spanwise di- rection within the blade structure at differentpositions. The actuator, when heated, transmits a torque couple which inducestwist onto the blade. The twist variation due to the SMA device activation hasbeen predicted by a FE approach (MSC/Marc software implemented with the SMABrinson model). Finally, rotor performance in hover has been estimated with theactuator in power on and off positions, highlighting benefits coming fromseveral spanwise integrations/distributions of the SMA device.