Optimisation of aspects of rotor blades in forward flight
by Catherine S. Johnson; Mark Woodgate; George N. Barakos
International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation (IJESMS), Vol. 4, No. 1/2, 2012

Abstract: This work presents a method for the optimisation of aspects of rotor blade shape in forward flight. The proposed technique employs CFD in conjunction with artificial neural networks (ANNs) and genetic algorithms (GAs). The developed method was used to optimise the anhedral and sweep of the UH60-A rotor blade in forward flight. A parameterisation method was defined, a specific objective function was created using the initial CFD data and the metamodel was used for evaluating the objective function during the optimisation. The obtained results suggest optima in agreement with engineering intuition but provide precise information about the shape of the final lifting surface and its performance. The results were checked using different optimisation methods and metamodels and were not sensitive to the employed techniques with substantial overlap between the outputs of the selected methods. The main CPU cost was associated with populating the CFD database necessary for the metamodel.

Online publication date: Sat, 30-Aug-2014

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation (IJESMS):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

    Username:        Password:         

Forgotten your password?


Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com