NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON THE ROTATING ROTOR WITH THREE ACTIVE COMPOSITE BLADES

In this paper, the dynamic behaviour of active composite blades were considered. Both numerical and experimental studies were performed. It was assumed that the rotor hub would be rotated at constant velocity. Experimental measurements were made. A special test rig was built which consisted of an active rotor with three composite blades, an electric drive system and a system of Digital Signal Processors. This DSP system was used for the excitation of the blades, control of the hub's rotary velocity and data acquisition. The MFC patch and strain-gauge sensors were used. The influence of the hub's rotary velocity and/or piezoelectric effect on the dynamic behaviour of the blades was determined. The numerical simulations were performed using two commercial simulation programmes: Abaqus and Matlab.