Measurement of Dynamic Rotor Blade Deformation

Improving the efficiency of future transport systems is a significant aspect of the UK’s strategy towards sustained economic growth. This not only requires innovation in the areas of aircraft design and manufacture, but also a focus on means of improving the efficiency of processes for aircraft maintenance and operations. The overall project objective is to develop a high performance, robust instrumentation system capable of operating in the challenging and harsh environment of a helicopter rotor hub, which will provide the capability to monitor the health of the rotor blades. This will have a major impact on flight safety, operations and maintenance and contribute towards reductions in point-to-point travel time (one of the ACARE2020 goals). The activities within the project will be focusing on (a) the development of a fibre-optic instrumentation for direct deformation measurement,(b) transfer of data between the rotating rotor hub and the airframe and,(c) incorporation within a health monitoring solution.Moreover, an investigation of all potential avenues of exploiting such a technology within the rotorcraft industry will be conducted to maximise the impact of the findings of this project.