Blade Property Measurement and Its Assessment on Air/Structural Loads of HART II Rotor

Abstract

In this study, the structural properties of Higher-harmonic Aeroacoustic Rotor Test (HART) II blades are determined using the state-of-the-art test techniques. The easurement includes bending and torsion stiffnesses, section geometric offsets, and mass and inertia properties. Several HART II blades including the original instrumented blade used for the wind tunnel test campaign in 2001 are employed for the activity. A finite element based cross-section analysis combined with the x-ray computer tomography technique is used for cases where no mechanical measurement is attempted. The resulting structural properties are correlated against the earlier estimated ones. It is found that the earlier properties overestimate the section values substantially. The comprehensive rotor dynamics analysis is performed to quantify the impact of the measured blade properties on the aeroelastic behavior of the rotor. The location of center of gravity is demonstrated to be the most influential factor affecting the correlation of the rotor.