Some practical issues in the computational design of airfoils for the helicopter main rotor blades. (English) Zbl 1274.76162

Kostić, Ivan

Theor. Appl. Mech. (Belgrade) 31, No. 3-4, 281-315 (2004).

Summary: A very important requirement for the helicopter rotor airfoils is the zero, or nearly zero moment coefficient about the aerodynamic center. Unlike the old technologies used for metal blades, the modern production involving application of plastic composites has imposed the necessity of adding a flat tab extension to the blade trailing edge, thus changing the original airfoil shape. Using the computer program TRANPRO, the author develops and verifies an algorithm for numerical analysis in this design stage, applies it on asymmetrical reflex camber airfoils, determines the influence of the angular tab positioning on the moment coefficient value and redesigns some existing airfoils to include properly positioned tabs that satisfy very low moment coefficient requirement.

MSC:

76B10

Jets and cavities, cavitation, free-streamline theory, water-entry problems, airfoil and hydrofoil theory, sloshing

Software:

TRANPRO