Aeroelastic Stability of Bearingless Rotors in Forward Flight

Abstract

The finite element method was used to determine the dynamic stability of bearingless rotor blades (BR) in forward flight. The analysis was applied to four different BR configurations and the results were correlated with experimental data. The analysis was correlated with hover lag mode stability data for a simple three-blade BR rotor tested in various pitch link configurations. In addition, a more advanced BR which includes precone, blade twist, blade sweep, and a lag shear restraint is analyzed and compared to experimental data in both hover and forward flight.