Effects of torsion frequencies on rotor performance and structural loads with trailing edge flap

The effects of variation of blade torsion frequency on rotor performance and structural loads are investigated for a 1/rev active flap rotor and baseline rotor (no active control). The UH-60A four-bladed articulated main rotor is studied at a high-speed forward flight condition. The torsion frequencies are varied by modifying the spanwise torsional stiffness of the blade and/or the pitch link stiffness. First, a parametric/optimization study on the flap deployment schedule is carried out using lifting-line comprehensive analysis for the soft, baseline, and stiff rotor configurations, and then a higher fidelity coupled computational fluid dynamics–computational structural dynamics analysis is carried out for the optimal flap deployment. It is shown that with the soft rotor there is degradation in performance—of about 6% with respect to the baseline rotor in the case where the flaps are not activated, and of about 1% if flap deflections are applied. On the other hand, for the stiff rotor there is a slight improvement in performance of about 2.3% when the flaps are not activated, and no appreciable change in the case where active flap deflections are applied. It appears that the peak performance achievable with using active flaps on a baseline stiffness rotor cannot be further improved significantly by varying the torsional frequencies. Variation of torsion frequency does not appear to have a significant influence on blade torsion moments and pitch link loads, although the 1/rev flap activation examined has an important role. (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)