# US 2026/0084841 A1 · Ground whirl flutter test system and test method for rotorcraft

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- Number: US 2026/0084841 A1
- Document ID: US20260084841A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 19/402,564
- Filed: 2025-11-26
- Published: 2026-03-26
- Earliest claimed: 2025-09-16
- Assignees: Dalian University of Technology
- Applicants: Dalian University of Technology
- Inventors: Weizhe FENG; Zhiyu CHEN; Ran TAN; Jiahe ZHANG; Huijin JING; Yichen QIN; Chongxu HAN; Zhihai LIANG; Zheng CHEN; Junzhe KANG-SI; Wei QIAN
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20260084841A1

## CPC

- B64F 5/60: Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems
- G01M 5/0016: {of aircraft wings or blades}
- G01M 5/0066: {by exciting or detecting vibration or acceleration (vibration testing of structures G01M7/00)}
- B64F: GROUND OR AIRCRAFT-CARRIER-DECK INSTALLATIONS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR USE IN CONNECTION WITH AIRCRAFT; DESIGNING, MANUFACTURING, ASSEMBLING, CLEANING, MAINTAINING OR REPAIRING AIRCRAFT, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; HANDLING, TRANSPORTING, TESTING OR INSPECTING AIRCRAFT COMPONENTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G01M: TESTING STATIC OR DYNAMIC BALANCE OF MACHINES OR STRUCTURES; TESTING OF STRUCTURES OR APPARATUS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

## Abstract

The present invention belongs to the technical field of flutter tests for rotorcrafts, and discloses a ground whirl flutter test system and test method for a rotorcraft. The ground whirl flutter test system for the rotorcraft comprises a hardware part and a software part. The hardware part comprises a rotor test article, a support system, force loading devices, vibration signal sensors, load cells, vibration signal acquisition cards, an industrial control computer, force signal output cards, a power amplifier and load cell signal acquisition cards. The software part of the ground whirl flutter test system for the rotorcraft comprises a rotor force and moment calculation program and a multi-input multi-output force control program running on the industrial control computer. The method can reserve all dynamic characteristics of the aircraft structure, is not restricted by the size of a wind tunnel test chamber section, does not require dynamic scaling of aircraft structures.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A ground whirl flutter test system for a rotorcraft, comprising a hardware part and a software part, wherein
the hardware part comprises a rotor test article—, a support system—, force loading devices, vibration signal sensors—, load cells—, vibration signal acquisition cards—, an industrial control computer—, force signal output cards—, power amplifiers—and load cell signal acquisition cards—;
the rotor test article—is fixed to the support system—;
the force loading devices—are placed along an O-Y axis and an O-Z axis respectively, and applied excitation forces and torques act on a point O;
the load cells—are located at the top ends of the force loading devices—and acquire load cell signals—, which are applied to the point O by the force loading devices—;
the vibration signal sensors—are arranged along the O-Y axis and the O-Z axis and acquire vibration signals—at the point O along the O-Y axis direction and the O-Z axis direction;
the vibration signals are acquired through the vibration signal acquisition cards—;
force output signals—of each force loading device—are outputted through the force signal output cards—, and outputted force signals are amplificated by the power amplifier—;
the load cell signals—are acquired through the load cell signal acquisition cards—;
the software part comprises a rotor force and moment calculation program and a multi—input multi-output force control program running on the industrial control computer—;
wherein the closed-loop signal transmission process of the ground whirl flutter test system for the rotorcraft is as follows: the vibration signals—acquired by the vibration signal acquisition cards—are recorded by the industrial control computer—, and the industrial control computer—calculates forces that act on the point O located in the center of a rotor hub—by using the input vibration signals—and a pre-programmed rotor force and moment calculation program; the industrial control computer outputs force control signals—to the power amplifiers—through the force signal output cards, the power amplifier outputs the force output signals—after power amplification to the force loading devices—, and the force loading devices—are driven to load the rotor test article—; meanwhile, the load cells—acquire the forces applied by the force loading devices—and feed back the forces to the industrial control computer—via the load cell signal acquisition cards—; and the industrial control computer—performs closed-loop feedback control on the forces applied by the force loading devices—according to force signals fed back and the pre-programmed multi-input multi-output force control program, so as to achieve the accurate loading of rotor aerodynamics and moment, ultimately, the phenomenon of whirl flutter of the rotor test article—is reproduced on the ground.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The ground whirl flutter test system for the rotorcraft according to claim 1, wherein the rotor test article—comprises a wing—, a nacelle—, the rotor hub—, rotor blades and a power take—off shaft—; a root of the wing—is fixed to the support system—, the nacelle—is located at a wingtip of the wing—, and a power system or a transmission system are installed inside the nacelle—; the power take-off shaft—is fixed to the nacelle—, and the front end of the axis of the power take-off shaft is connected with the rotor hub—; and the rotor hub—is further connected with the three rotor blades—, and is responsible for transmitting a torque from the power take-off shaft—to the rotor blades—.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The ground whirl flutter test system for the rotorcraft according to claim 2, wherein a local coordinate system O-X-Y-Z of the rotor test article—is constructed, wherein a coordinate origin O is fixed to the center of the rotor hub—, and located at an intersection point between the axis of the power take-off shaft—and a rotor disc of the rotor blades—; observation is performed from the tail of the nacelle—to the position of the rotor hub—at the head of the nacelle—, and an X-axis is forward and coincides with the axis of the power take—off shaft—; a Y-axis is perpendicular to the X-axis and the direction is horizontally to the right; and a Z-axis is perpendicular to an O-X-Y plane and the direction is vertically downward.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The ground whirl flutter test system for the rotorcraft according to claim 3, wherein the rotor force and moment calculation program calculates and feeds back the rotor aerodynamics and rotor gyroscopic moment acting on the coordinate origin O on the rotor hub—according to the vibration signals at the coordinate origin O on the rotor hub—.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The ground whirl flutter test system for the rotorcraft according to claim 4, wherein a feedback control program of the force loading devices—adopts a multi-input multi-output control method; and input signals are: displacements at the coordinate origin O on the rotor hub-along an O-Y direction and an O-Z direction, as well as rotational angles around the O-Y axis and the O-Z axis.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

A ground whirl flutter test method for a rotorcraft using the ground whirl flutter test system for the rotorcraft according to claim 1, comprising the following steps:
step 1: building a hardware part of the ground whirl flutter test system for the rotorcraft;
step 2: building a software part of the ground whirl flutter test system for the rotorcraft, wherein software running on an industrial control computer comprises two parts: a first part is a rotor force and moment calculation program, and a second part is a multi-input multi-output force control program;
step 2.1, the rapid rotor force and moment calculation program: inputs are vibration signals—on an origin O of a local coordinate system of a rotor test article—which are acquired and recorded by the industrial control computer—, outputs are equivalent forces and moments acting on the point O, which are calculated using input signals according to formulas (1)-(7);
step 2.2, the multi-input multi-output force control program: inputs are forces measured by load cells—and actually applied by force loading devices, and outputs are force control signals—; first, building a controlled object dynamical model which is composed of power amplifiers—and force loading devices—, and establishing a transmission relationship of a controlled object by using system identification method; and then, according to a modern control theory of multi-input multi-output, establish the control rule of links of the power amplifier—and the force loading devices—;
step 3: a ground whirl flutter test for the rotorcraft;
step 3.1, starting the industrial control computer—and checking all acquisition and output channels to ensure normal operation;
step 3.2, setting rotor speed Ω, setting air density ρ, and changing inflow velocity V;
applying disturbance to a rotor hub—and observing whether the rotor test article—displays persistent oscillation or divergent oscillation;
step 3.3, if the rotor test article—displays the persistent oscillation or critical divergent oscillation, then the inflow velocity V at this time is a whirl flutter speed VFL under the current rotor speed Ω and air density ρ; and if the vibration of the rotor test article—converges, then continuing to increase the inflow velocity V and repeating step 3.2 until critical speed for flutter, VFL is found;
step 3.4, setting a new rotor speed Ω and air density ρ, repeating step 3.2 and finding a critical speed for whirl flutter, VFL in a next state;
step 3.5, changing other structural parameters of the rotor test article—, comprising structural support stiffness, mass distribution and moment of inertia, repeating step 3.2 and studying the influence rules of different structural parameters on the critical speed for whirl flutter, VFL;
step 3.6, after all combined states of the rotor speed, the air density, the inflow velocity and structural parameters are completed in the test, considering that the ground whirl flutter test of a current test model is completed, and ending the ground whirl flutter test.