Rotorcraft aeroelastic stability

Theoretical and experimental developments in the aeroelastic and aeromechanical stability of helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft are addressed. Included are the underlying nonlinear structural mechanics of slender rotating beams, necessary for accurate modeling of elastic cantilever rotor blades, and the development of dynamic inflow, an unsteady aerodynamic theory for low-frequency aeroelastic stability applications. Analytical treatment of isolated rotor stability in hover and forward flight, coupled rotor-fuselage stability in hover and forward flight, and analysis of tilt-rotor dynamic stability are considered. Results of parametric investigations of system behavior are presented, and correlation between theoretical results and experimental data from small and large scale wind tunnel and flight testing are discussed

A review of gear housing dynamics and acoustics literature

A review of the available literature on gear housing vibration and noise reduction is presented. Analytical and experimental methodologies used for bearing dynamics, housing vibration and noise, mounts and suspensions, and the overall geared and housing system are discussed. Typical design guidelines as outlined by various investigators are given

Survey of Army/NASA rotorcraft aeroelastic stability research

Theoretical and experimental developments in the aeroelastic and aeromechanical stability of helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft are addressed. Included are the underlying nonlinear structural mechanics of slender rotating beams, necessary for accurate modeling of elastic cantilever rotor blades, and the development of dynamic inflow, an unsteady aerodynamic theory for low frequency aeroelastic stability applications. Analytical treatment of isolated rotor stability in hover and forward flight, coupled rotor-fuselage stability are considered. Results of parametric investigations of system behavior are presented, and correlations between theoretical results and experimental data from small- and large-scale wind tunnel and flight testing are discussed

Low-frequency linear vibrations of single-walled carbon nanotubes: Analytical and numerical models

Low-frequency vibrations of single-walled carbon nanotubes with various boundary conditions are considered in the framework of the Sanders–Koiter thin shell theory. Two methods of analysis are proposed. The first approach is based on the Rayleigh–Ritz method, a double series expansion in terms of Chebyshev polynomials and harmonic functions is considered for the displacement fields; free and clamped edges are analysed. This approach is partially numerical. The second approach is based on the same thin shell theory, but the goal is to obtain an analytical solution useful for future developments in nonlinear fields; the Sanders–Koiter equations are strongly simplified neglecting in-plane circumferential normal strains and tangential shear strains. The model is fully validated by means of comparisons with experiments, molecular dynamics data and finite element analyses obtained from the literature. Several types of nanotubes are considered in detail by varying aspect ratio, chirality and boundary conditions. The analyses are carried out for a wide range of frequency spectrum. The strength and weakness of the proposed approaches are shown; in particular, the model shows great accuracy even though it requires minimal computational effort

Dynamic Stability of a Sandwich Plate under Parametric Excitation

Vibration control of machines and structures incorporating viscoelastic materials in suitable arrangement is an important aspect of investigation. The use of viscoelastic layers constrained between elastic layers is known to be effective for damping of flexural vibrations of structures over a wide range of frequencies. The energy dissipated in these arrangements is due to shear deformation in the viscoelastic layers, which occurs due to flexural vibration of the structures. Sandwich plate like structures can be used in aircrafts and other applications such as robot arms for effective vibration control. These members may experience parametric instability when subjected to time dependent forces. The theory of dynamic stability of elastic systems deals with the study of vibrations induced by pulsating loads that are parametric with respect to certain forms of deformation. The purpose of the present work is to investigate the dynamic stability of a three layered symmetric sandwich plate subjected to an end periodic axial force. Equations of motion are derived using finite element method. The regions of instability for simple and combination resonances are established using modified Hsu’s method proposed by Saito and Otomi. It is observed that for plate with simply supported boundary conditions the fundamental frequency, fundamental buckling load increase with increase in core thickness parameter for higher values of core thickness parameter. The fundamental frequency, fundamental buckling load decrease with increase in core thickness parameter for lower values of core thickness parameter. The system fundamental loss factor increases with increase in thickness ratio. The fundamental buckling load and fundamental frequency increase with increase in shear parameter. The fundamental system loss factor has an increasing tendency with increase in shear parameter. The increase in core thickness ratio and shear parameter has stabilizing effect. Whereas increase in static load factor has a destabilizing effect

Complex dynamics of circular cylindrical shells

Complex dynamics of circular cylindrical shells subjected to inertial axial loads are investigated. The shell is vertically mounted on a shaker, i.e. its base is clamped to the shaker fixture, which induces a vertical motion along the shell axis. On the top of the shell a rigid disk is mounted, the vertical motion induced by the shaker induces huge inertial forces due to the rigid body motion. A complicating effect is due to the base actuator, which is an electro-dynamic shaking table; the interaction between the shell and shaker dynamics changes dramatically the system behaviour. The non-linear Sanders–Koiter theory is considered for the structural dynamics: the resulting set of non-linear partial differential equations is coupled with the linear ordinary differential equations that govern the shaker dynamics. A deep analysis of the non-stationary response of the shell is carried out in order to clarify the transition from stationary to non-stationary response. The model is validated by means of experimental results

On triply coupled vibrations of axially loaded thin-walled composite beams

Free vibration of axially loaded thin-walled composite beams with arbitrary lay-ups is presented. This model is based on the classical lamination theory, and accounts for all the structural coupling coming from material anisotropy. Equations of motion for flexural–torsional coupled vibration are derived from the Hamilton’s principle. The resulting coupling is referred to as triply coupled vibrations. A displacement-based one-dimensional finite element model is developed to solve the problem. Numerical results are obtained for thin-walled composite beams to investigate the effects of axial force, fiber orientation and modulus ratio on the natural frequencies, load–frequency interaction curves and corresponding vibration mode shapes