Helicopter rotor blade vibration reduction with optimizing the structural distribution of composite layers

Abstract

In helicopter rotorcraft design, two main approaches as passive and active control methods widely used to decline vibration. In this study passive control methods are used to reduce vibration in the helicopter rotor blade. The most common passive control devices are dynamic vibration dampers, isolators and structural distribution of the composite blades. A surrogate optimization formula is used as the objective function of vibration reduction which includes vibratory hub loads and bending moments. In optimization model, composite ply angles are design variables and spar frequency-placement, autorotation and stress conditions are constraints. As the optimization method, a hybrid solution is chosen. The gradient-based algorithms generate accurate results in trust region and heuristic methods scan very large area of solution space. Due to the aforementioned advantages, these algorithms are hybridized. As a result of the comparison of the optimization outcomes with the baseline UH-60 rotor blades, approximately 38 % vibration reduction is observed in the new design.