Abstract
The paper will review the development and application of the mathematical modelling of the advanced rotorcraft configuration, including compound helicopter configurations and tilt-rotor vehicles. The mathematical model is the basis for the design of the flight control system and an essential tool to assess the flying and handling qualities for helicopters. As the helicopter is a multi-body system, the mathematical modelling of helicopter should consider the coupling effects among motion, inertia, structure, and aerodynamics, as well as the unsteady and nonlinear characteristics, to give the physical principles and mathematical expression of each part. Therefore, the mathematical modelling of a helicopter is a process of analysing and synthesizing different hypotheses and subsystem models. Moreover, the advanced helicopter configuration puts forward higher requirements for the helicopter mathematical modelling in terms of the aerodynamic interference, blade motion characteristics, and manoeuvre assessment. The critical issues of helicopter modelling, especially the modelling of the advanced rotorcraft configurations, will be illustrated in this paper. The emphasis is put on the modelling of rotor aerodynamics and aerodynamic interaction among the rotor, fuselage, and other parts. Integrated modelling methods and the manoeuvrability investigation are also the foci of the paper. Suggestions for future research on helicopter flight dynamics modelling are also provided.
Highlights
The paper will review the development and application of the mathematical modelling of the advanced rotorcraft configuration, including compound helicopter configurations and tilt-rotor vehicles
The aim of helicopter flight dynamics modelling is to construct a correlation among the helicopter motion, the external forces, and the controllers based on the physical laws associated with aero dynamic theory and structural dynamics results
Significant advances in helicopter mathematical modelling techniques are detailed in this paper
Summary
The helicopter flight dynamics mathematical model has been developed from a simple 6 degree-of-freedom (DOFs) rigid-body model to multi-DOFs model. The rotor downwash on other parts of the helicopter and other aerodynamic interference effects are included based on the experimental and theoretical analysis results The accuracy of this modelling technique is well understood, and the method has been widely used for various studies, such as the ground numerical simulation [24], non-linear equation parallel processing investigation [25], and high-order linear model simplification [26]. The University of Maryland developed an improved flight dynamics simulation code, HeliUM 2, to overcome the deficiencies in the GENHEL code [33] It includes flexible rotors and free-vortex wake models to improve its accuracy across the flight range, and it has been expanded to include flexible wings and multi-rotor calculation capabilities. How to investigate the helicopter manoeuvring flight characteristics is still a key issue in the research of the helicopter flight dynamics
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