Dynamic Simulation of a Rotor System with Variable Speed

Abstract:
Current concepts for fast rotorcraft and tiltrotor-/tiltwing aircraft require a speed variation in a wide range; this wide range cannot be covered by varying only the turbine speed. Such new aircraft under development require a rotor system with a large rotor speed variation but constant turbine speed which leads to the consequence that a transmission with a variable ratio during flight is necessary. TU Munich, TU Wien and Zoerkler gears work in the funded research projects VARI-SPEED and VARI-SPEED II on a solution "constant turbine speed / variable rotor speed" that consists of a transmission with variable ratio and a rotor system with rotor head and rotor blades for variable rotor speed. The helicopter UH-60A from Sikorsky Aircraft is used as reference. The project VARI-SPEED showed the feasibility of a rotor system with variable speed. In the current project VARISPEED II the dynamic simulation of the system is built up. The paper describes the approach to the simulation and shows first results for each component. After completion of the simulation the elaborated rotor control will be implemented in a flight simulator for evaluation by pilots.

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