04.2 - Aerostructures Design, Structural Dynamics, Aeroelasticity
RESEARCH ON STRUCTURAL DESIGN OF TAIL BOOM FOR AN UNMANNED HELICOPTER
C.-G. Yang¹, Z.-Q. Tian¹; ¹China Helicopter Design and Research Institute, China
The structural design of metallic tail boom for an unmanned helicopter which possesses a single rotor and tail-rotor is developed. For the sake of promoting the development of lightweight and efficient tail boom structure under the booming new manufacturing technology, the concept of sub-strengthening frame is proposed. Subsequently the structural design of two kinds of tail booms with conventional monocoque structure and sub-strengthening frame is implemented under the constant weight condition. Linear buckling analysis and strength analysis are developed under yawing condition. The analysis demonstrates that the introduction of sub-strengthening to the conventional monocoque tail boom structure significantly improves the tail boom’s buckling load by 9.2%. Based on works above, a sizing optimization model of sub-strengthening frame tail boom structure is constructed for weight reduction. And it deserves further attention for helicopter design industry which endeavors to develop high performance lightweight tail boom structures with new manufacture technology. The results manifest that the optimized tail boom not only meets the requirements of structural design, but also reduces the structural weight by 7.4%, the structural configuration design of metallic tail boom is reasonable and feasible.