Prediction of the Necessary Degrees of Freedom for Helicotper Real-Time Simulation Models

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DOI: 10.2514/1.34278 Thepurpose of this paperis toexamine the mathematical modelingof the helicopter flight dynamics for simulator qualification and to reveal new insights into the mathematical model’s response fidelity. The paper will focus on the qualification process of the simulator mathematical model as given by joint aviation requirement STD-1H, the European standard for helicopter simulator qualification. Using the joint-aviation-requirement tolerances, defined as acceptable differences between the model results, the flight test data, and the critical-pole-distance method developed at Delft University of Technology for predicting the necessary degrees of freedom of a simulation model, the paper will perform a sensitivity study on the pitch tolerances specified by the joint-aviation-requirement regulation, investigating how these tolerances might affect the model level of detail. It will be demonstrated that depending on the rotor system, the tolerances may or may not affect the helicopter flight dynamics behavior. For an articulated centrally hinged rotor, it will beshown that the tolerances havevery little effect on the level of detail used in the modeling; for a hingeless rotor, variations in the model from an uncoupled flap-body dynamics to a coupled flap-body result in large variation in the simulation results and handling-qualities characteristics.