Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SABRE (Shape Adaptive Blades for Rotorcraft Efficiency)
Período documentado: 2020-06-01 hasta 2021-05-31
The two primary objectives of the SABRE research program are to develop a range of different morphing concepts which all have significant promise for emissions reductions while also quantifying the potential helicopter emissions reductions achievable through their use. These dual research streams are tightly cross-linked, with the morphing technology development directly informing the rotor level analysis of what the performance achievable, while the rotor level analysis also feeds back where and how to best use the morphing devices to maximise the emissions reductions. Only in this way can the tightly coupled questions of "what is the best way to use morphing rotors?" and "what can the morphing technologies achieve?" be answered. Our consortium brings together world leading experts in both rotorcraft analysis and morphing technology development and SABRE has been carefully structured to allow for genuinely collaborative research between them to answer these questions.
The progress made throughout the SABRE program has also gone a long way towards advancing the maturity of the morphing technologies, supporting our second program objective. While progress on the design and experimental aspects of Work Package 2 was affected by the global pandemic, an adaptive research strategy was employed which allowed us to focus on realising the key experimental wind tunnel and whirl tower tests, while supporting this work with benchtop testing of subsystems and components along with enhanced numerical simulations. These tests showed the morphing concepts can withstand aerodynamic and centrifugal loading, with the desired levels of direct control of lift being validated in the wind tunnel.
While morphing rotor blade technologies still need further development before they are ready for industrial adoption, our work in SABRE has shown, in the most comprehensive and integrated way, that they are indeed worth pursuing, with achievable reductions in emissions that are far beyond what is achievable with traditional rotor design.