Monitoring of helicopters swash-plate wear using the FAM-C diagnosis method

Abstract

Helicopter rotor dynamics (blade vibrations, ground resonance, influence of forward speed, etc.) play an important role in the wear and tear of the transmission system and power unit. Particularly fast wear of these components is to be expected in military helicopters in combat conditions, where the flight dynamics parameters are often exceeded. The FAM-C method developed at the Air Force Institute of Technology in Poland has been used to assess and monitor this wear. This method can be used to monitor damage to helicopter propulsion and transmission, where other "classical" methods are less effective due to a very complicated system of forces, variable as to the direction of amplitude and frequency, causing vibrations in closely spaced kinematic pairs. For this reason, vibroacoustic and thermal effects are created around these kinematic pairs, which interfere with each other. In a helicopter, the propulsion unit, including the power transmission unit, is at the same time the carrier unit. This has forced designers to construct a propulsion system with a much greater number of joints and bearing supports. This article presents the possibilities of the FAM-C method for monitoring of swash-plate main bearing wear.

Keywords

• frequency modulation
• frequency analysis
• bearing wear
• characteristic pattern
• helicopter swash-plate