Boeing-SMART Test Report for DARPA Helicopter Quieting Program

Abstract

The Tactical Technology Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated the Helicopter Quieting Program (HQP) in 2004 to develop high fidelity, state-of-the-art computational tools for designing advanced helicopter rotors with reduced acoustics perceptibility and enhanced performance. A critical step towards this achievement is the development of high-end rotorcraft prediction codes capable of assessing a wide range of helicopter configurations and operations for future rotorcraft designs. This includes novel next-generation rotor systems that incorporate innovative passive and/or active elements to meet future challenging military performance and survivability goals. Phase I of the HQP program involved development of prediction methodologies ("tools") by coupling computational structural dynamics (CSD) to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling codes. Participants (vendors) included joint efforts by Stanford University/University of Maryland (SM), as well as Georgia Institute of Technology/Pennsylvania State University (GP) and Teledyne Sciences Corporation (TSC). Phase I was primarily geared towards validating these prediction tools for conventional rotors currently in use by the fleet. Results from the vendors demonstrated significant improvements in prediction accuracy and correlations [1] over classical comprehensive methods in all aspects of the aerodynamics, structural and acoustics responses of the rotor. Phase Ib1 was initiated in 2007 to demonstrate the robustness of HQP tools in the characteristics of unconventional rotor designs that utilize innovative on-blade active controls for dynamic tuning. An active flap rotor currently under-development at Boeing (i.e. the Boeing SMART rotor) was selected as the candidate for this code validation effort.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 21, 2009
Accession Number
ADA529306

Entities

People

  • Ben W. Sim
  • Benton H. Lau
  • Brandon Hagerty
  • Kelly C. Cheng
  • Nicole Obriecht
  • Tanner Gasow

Organizations

  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Channels
  • Acoustics
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Data Acquisition
  • Experimental Data
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Frequency
  • Helicopters
  • Leading Edges
  • Measurement
  • Pressure Measurement
  • Rotary Wing Aircraft
  • Standards
  • Structural Loads
  • Trailing Edges
  • Wind Tunnels

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development

Technology Areas

  • Space