Abstract
This paper presents the work being carried out in order to deduce hover performance of a small-scale single rotor blade as a preliminary study of a small coaxial rotor helicopter development. As an initial research, a test stand capable of measuring thrust and torque of a small-scale rotor blade in hover state was constructed and fabricated. The test stand consists of three parts; a rotating device, a load measuring sensor and a data acquisition system. Thrust and torque were measured with varying collective pitch angle at fixed RPM. Through this research, hover performance tests were conducted for a small-scale single rotor blade operating in low Reynolds numbers (Re ≈ 3 × 105). The rotor blades investigated in this paper have maximum FM values varying from 0.59 to 0.65, which are low relative to modern full-scale helicopters. From these differences in FM between a small and a full-scale helicopter, the induced power factor is determined as varying from 1.35 to 1.42. Through this study, tests of hover performance were conducted for a single small-scale rotor blade, as well as verifying the test stand itself for the acquisition of hover performance.
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This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Do Hyung Lee
Byoung-Eon Lee received his B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Pusan National University in 2006, and finished a Ph.D course of study in 2010. He is currently a research engineer of Aerospace Engineering at Pusan National University in Busan, Korea. His research interests include helicopter rotor blade, coaxial helicopter and unmanned aerial vehicle.
Beom-Soo Kang received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pusan National University in 1981, and his M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from KAIST in 1983 in Korea. He then obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley, USA, in 1990. Dr. Kang is currently a Professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Pusan National University in Busan, Korea. His research interests include coaxial helicopter and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
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Lee, BE., Byun, YS., Kim, J. et al. Experimental hover performance evaluation on a small-scale rotor using a rotor test stand. J Mech Sci Technol 25, 1449–1456 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-011-0429-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-011-0429-5