Rotor Track and Balance Improvements

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Published Oct 14, 2013
Eric Bechhoefer Austin Fang Ephrahim Garcia

Abstract

Vibration derived from the main rotor dynamics and imbalance causes premature wear to the aircraft components, and can cause pilot fatigue. While improvements have been made in rotor track and balance (RTB) techniques; there is room to enhance the quality of the recommended RTB adjustments.

One aspect that limits the development of RTB algorithms is the difficulty in quantifying the performance of new algorithms. This is because there are limited data sets to work on, and no agreed upon metrics on which to measure RTB performance.This paper develops a methodology to simulate the vibration due to injecting a fault into the rotor system, and demonstrates metrics to evaluate the performance of a RTB algorithm. A new Bayes RTB method is evaluated against a standard least squares technique. In addition, a technique is presented to automate the selection of active adjustments.

How to Cite

Bechhoefer, E. ., Fang, A. ., & Garcia, E. . (2013). Rotor Track and Balance Improvements. Annual Conference of the PHM Society, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.36001/phmconf.2013.v5i1.2216
Abstract 487 | PDF Downloads 426

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Keywords

rotor track and balance, reducing helicopter vibration, track

References
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Section
Technical Research Papers