AN ACCELEROMETER-BASED INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM FOR MEASUREMENT OF HELICOPTER ROTOR MOTION AND LOADS

Results from a recent Navy-sponsored study directed at an accelerometer-based instrumentation system for the measurement of helicopter rotor motion and loads are described. Background into the requirements and needs of the measurement system are provided, and then consideration is given to a novel scheme that incorporates blade-mounted accelerometer sensors with a simplified signal processing scheme to extract both rotor motion measurements, and to a limited extent, blade loading information. Issues regarding sensitivity of the system to modeling errors, nonlinearities and sensor bias errors are examined through detailed simulation and analysis. Finally, a demonstration of the system performance for reconstructing flapping motion measurements is provided using Froude-scaled model rotor test results. Conclusions from this work and some preliminary implementation issues leading to prototype development for this new system are presented.