Instrumentation for Fabrication and Testing of High-Speed Single-Rotor and Compound-Rotor Systems

Precision data acquisition is required to generate a comprehensive set of measurements of the blade surface pressures, pitch link loads, hub loads, rotor wakes and performance of high-speed single-rotor and compound-rotor systems to support the development of next-generation rotorcraft.

Army Research Office, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Precision data acquisition is required to generate a comprehensive set of measurements of the blade surface pressures, pitch link loads, hub loads, rotor wakes and performance of high-speed single-rotor and compound-rotor systems to support the development of next-generation rotorcraft, such as envisioned in the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) rotorcraft program. These data are crucial to validate advanced CFD tools, as well as gain improved understanding of the fundamental physics in high advance ratio flight conditions.

The research program at the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center (AGRC) is built around four interrelated thrust areas, namely: rotorcraft dynamics and aeroelasticity; aerodynamics and acoustics; flight dynamics and controls; and composite and smart structures. The research tasks are equally balanced between theoretical, computational and experimental components.