In this study, the helicopter blade in forward-flight condition was investigated. The blade element theory (BET) was used throughout this analysis to investigate the angle of attack variations at the blade cross sections, lift distribution along the blade and effects of increasing helicopter speed. Prouty's helicopter data was used to validate the analysis results. In this analysis, the helicopter blade was divided into 50 equally spaced elements and the azimuth ψ was set at 7.2° for each movement of the blade. The helicopter speed of 80 m/s was considered. The analysis revealed that the computation results were in good agreement with Prouty's diagram. Furthermore, it was also evident that in the case of a helicopter in forward-flight condition, the blade at retreating side was generally at low angle of attack and experienced low lift, in contrast to the blade at advancing side. The increment of the helicopter speed affected the lift distribution along the blade. The reverse flow area was widened two times from that given by the original Prouty's diagram. In addition, it was proven that each helicopter has its own speed limit called velocity never exceed (VNE). It was also shown that BET is important in conducting the analysis to modify the helicopter blade design for the aerodynamic characteristics' improvement as well as stability and general performance enhancement for the helicopter.

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During helicopter forward flight, the retreating blade revolves at high angle of attack compared to advancing blade in order to balance the lift and also to stabilise the helicopter. However, due to the aerodynamics limitations of the retreating blade at forward flight, stall may occur at high angle of attack compared with the advancing blade. This phenomenon is dangerous for pilot when controlling and balancing the helicopter while flying against strong wind. This paper investigates the capabilities of introducing multiple vortex traps on the upper surface of the helicopter airfoil in order to delay the stall angle of retreating helicopter blade. Blade Element Theory (BET) was applied to scrutinize the lift force along the helicopter blade. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analyses using the Shear-Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model was carried out to investigate the effect of groove on delaying the stall and to predict the separation of flow over the airfoil. Based on the CFD analyses, the optimization of the groove was done by analyzing the numbers and locations of the grooves. Finally, the results from both BET and the CFD analyses were utilised to obtain the lift force achieved by the vortex trap. The study showed that the presence of multiple vortex traps has successfully increased the lift coefficient and most importantly, delaying the stall angle.

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