Optimization of Composite Couplings in Helicopter Rotor Blade Spar Using Hybrid Particle Swarm-Gradient Algorithm

Year 2017, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 71 - 78, 30.11.2017

Hacer Arıol Taymaz

Abstract

Modern helicopter rotor blades are made of advanced
composite material due to higher stiffness/mass ratio, superior fatigue
characteristic along with capability of aeroelastic tailoring. In
composite materials, circumferentially uniform stiffness (CUS) and
circumferentially asymmetric stiffness (CAS) layup
configurations, which offer convenience in terms of production methods,
are widely used in the design of fiber angles. However, it is desirable to
optimize the results by examining the couplings to test better results can
be achieved with effective modifications to the fibers without CUS and
CAS. It is a fact that gradient-based optimization
algorithms were quite popular in the years when computers
had not been so powerful yet. But the nature of the gradient-based
algorithms, they can provide local optimum. When the gradian based
classical methods are tested, the results are the same as the CUS and
CAS distributions. Also, the hybrid particle swarm-gradient
algorithm by means of C#, VABS, Abaqus, MATLAB proposes
better results on the composite couplings of blade spar such as
extension-torsion, lead-lag torsion and flap-torsion.

Keywords

Composite couplings, VABS cross-sectional analysis, hybrid particle swarm-gradient algorithm

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