Autonomous camber morphing of a helicopter rotor blade with temperature change using integrated shape memory alloys

DiPalma, Matthew; Gandhi, Farhan

doi:10.1177/1045389x20953613

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…They discovered that the maximum propulsive force is obtained when the flapping frequency is near the resonance frequency, whereas the optimal propulsive efficiency is reached when flapping frequency at about half of the natural frequency. DiPalma and Gandhi [21] proposed a new autonomous morphing helicopter rotor blade using Integrated Shape Memory Alloys. They discovered that the rotor recovered up to 43% of the lift loss at high temperature when the SMA camber morphing section extends from the blade root to 50% span.…”

Section: Aerodynamic Performance Of a Flyable Flapping Wing Rotor With Passive Pitching Angle Variationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerodynamic Performance of a Flyable Flapping Wing Rotor With Passive Pitching Angle Variation

Chen

Wang

et al. 2022

IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.

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The present work was based on an experimental study on the aerodynamic performance of a flapping wing rotor (FWR) and enhancement by passive pitching angle variation (PPAV) associated with powered flapping motion. The PPAV (in this study 10 o ~50 o ) was realized by a specially designed sleeve-pin unit as part of a U-shape flapping mechanism. Through experiment and analysis, it was found that the average lift produced by an FWR of PPAV was >100% higher than the baseline model, the same FWR of a constant pitching angle 30 o under the same input power. It was also noted that the lift-voltage relationship for the FWR of PPAV was almost linear and the aerodynamic efficiency was also over 100% higher than the baseline FWR when the input voltage was under 6V. The aerodynamic lift or efficiency of the FWR of PPAV can be also increased significantly by reducing the weight of the wings. An FWR model was fabricated and achieved vertical take-off and free flight powered by 9V input voltage. The mechanism of PPAV function provides a feasible solution for aerodynamic improvement of a bio-inspired FWR and potential application to micro-air-vehicles (MAVs).

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Section: Aerodynamic Performance Of a Flyable Flapping Wing Rotor With Passive Pitching Angle Variationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerodynamic Performance of a Flyable Flapping Wing Rotor With Passive Pitching Angle Variation

Chen

Wang

et al. 2022

IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.

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“…The growing interest in blade morphing is also evidenced by the number of scientific publications on its use in the blades of highly integrated actuation architectures. Among the most recent ones are the study of SMA-based skins for blade chamber variation [31], the strength analysis of the blade region for the later integration of an SMA actuator [32], and the active vibration control of rotating blades using piezoelectric actuators [33]. Still on the blade morphing topic, but with a focus on renewable energy production, one recalls INWIND "Innovative Wind Conversion Systems (10-20 MW) For Offshore Applications" (2012-2017), funded within the 7th Framework program and targeting the conceptual design and development of innovative off-shore concepts and their demonstration [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling of a SMA Blade Twist System Suited for Demonstration in Wind Tunnel and Whirl Tower Plants

Ameduri,

Ciminello,

Concilio

et al. 2023

Applied Sciences

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In this work, the modeling of a demonstrator of a morphing system aimed at altering the twist of a rotorcraft blade is presented. The device was conceived for two different representative environments: the wind tunnel plant of the University of Bristol and the whirl tower facility of the DLR, for tests in fixed and wing rotary configurations, respectively. The concept, conceived and matured within the European Project of SABRE, is based on shape memory alloys, SMA. This technology was selected for its intrinsic compactness and solidity, which better meet the requirements of a typical blade structure, being extremely flexible and subjected to relevant inertial loads. A dedicated structural layout was conceived to favor the working modality of the SMA torsional system; this architecture was tailored both to absorb the typical actions occurring onto a blade and to assure a certain level of pre-twist necessary for the SMA strain recovery. The activation of the SMA was performed through an electrothermal helicoidal coil wrapped around it. A dedicated network of sensors was integrated within the structure to measure the impact of the different actions on the blade system. This subsystem, functional to shape reconstruction operations, is capable of splitting the contribution of the loads to pure twist and flapping. At first, the requirements imposed by the two test facilities were elaborated together to the operational needs, arriving at the issue of the most relevant specifications. Secondly, the conceptual and advanced design were considered, demonstrating, first, the feasibility of the concept and, then, its compliance with the test environment. The work ends with two different layouts, conceived respectively for the tests in fixed and rotary wing configurations. For both of them, a performance estimate was addressed, and a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages was presented.

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“…The inner one was connected to an actuator to provide torque to realize the wing's torsional deformation. Dipalma et al [27] explored a new autonomous morphing concept where a camber increase of 13 • was realized over a spanwise section of a helicopter rotor blade with increased ambient temperature by integrating SMA on the lower surface of the blade. A conceptual hybrid design with surfaces embedded with SMA and trailing macro fiber composites was proposed to optimize the efficiency throughout the flight period [28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of a Morphing Skin with Shape Memory Alloy Based on Equivalent Thermal Stress Approach

Zhang

Gao

et al. 2022

Micromachines

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Shape memory alloy (SMA) is one of the potential driving devices for morphing aircraft due to its advantages of pseudoelasticity, superelasticity, and shape memory effect. Precise and fast analysis of SMA has simultaneously become a key requirement for industrial applications. In this study, a user-defined material subroutine (UMAT) was implemented and successfully applied in a three-dimensional numerical simulation in ABAQUS based on the extended Boyd–Lagoudas model. In addition to the conventional detwinned martensite (Md) and austenite (A), twinned martensite (Mt) was also considered to model the practical transformation accurately. Then, the equivalent thermal strain approach was adopted to simplify the simulation complexity with UMAT. By resetting the thermal expansion coefficient, the thermal strain equivalent to the original phase transformation strain was generated. The approach was validated in two cases, showing consistent results with the extended Boyd–Lagoudas model and reduction in time consumption by 89.1%. Lastly, an active morphing skin integrating the single-range SMA and a stainless-steel plate was designed to realize two-way morphing. The calculated arc height variation of the skin was 3.74 mm with a relative error of 1.84% compared to the experimental result of 3.81 mm. The coupled use of UMAT and the equivalent thermal stress approach helped to reduce the challenge in modeling SMA.

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Autonomous camber morphing of a helicopter rotor blade with temperature change using integrated shape memory alloys

Cited by 8 publications

References 29 publications

Aerodynamic Performance of a Flyable Flapping Wing Rotor With Passive Pitching Angle Variation

Aerodynamic Performance of a Flyable Flapping Wing Rotor With Passive Pitching Angle Variation

Modelling of a SMA Blade Twist System Suited for Demonstration in Wind Tunnel and Whirl Tower Plants

Design of a Morphing Skin with Shape Memory Alloy Based on Equivalent Thermal Stress Approach

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