DESIGN, ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE AND ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OF HELICOPTER ROTOR BLADES WITH UNCONVENTIONAL SHAPES

Abstract

In this paper, a blade with unconventional structure, corrugations and BERP tip, used in UAV helicopters, was designed, analyzed and additively manufactured. Aerodynamically, the unconventional blade shows better performance compared to the conventional blade at positive angles of attack. Acoustically, the unconventional blade showed a reduced noise level compared to the conventional blade. Acoustic testing of additively manufactured samples with five honeycomb core configurations showed higher performance for the 1.5 mm honeycomb cell samples 3D printed from T-PLA.

Keywords

• design
• additive manufacturing
• helicopter rotor blade
• acoustic performance
• CFD analysis