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US 5,853,144 AGranted
Helicopter and method for reducing vibration of a helicopter fuselage
AssigneeGKN Westland Helicopters Limited
InventorAlan Henry Vincent
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AssigneeGKN Westland Helicopters Limited
InventorAlan Henry Vincent
Estimating the term…
A helicopter structure comprises a fuselage supporting or supported by a rotating system parts of the structure being capable of relative motion at an exciting frequency, there being a plurality of actuators connected between the relatively movable parts of the structure, means continuously to oscillate the actuators at a frequency substantially corresponding to the exciting frequency, and a plurality of sensors attached to the rotating system at selected locations on the rotating system, the sensors being adapted to generate signals representative of dynamic changes at the respective selected locations, processing means adapted to process the signals from the sensors and to provide output signals for controlling the phase and magnitude of applied forces generated by the actuators and for varying the phase and magnitude characteristics of the forces so as to compensate for changes in the dynamic characteristic of the rotating system, whereby the overall level of vibration in the fuselage structure is reduced.
A helicopter comprising a structure including a fuselage one of supporting and supported by a rotating system, parts of the structure being capable of relative motion at an exciting frequency, there being a plurality of actuators connected between the relatively movable parts of the structure, means continuously to oscillate the actuators at a frequency substantially corresponding to the exciting frequency, and a plurality of sensors attached to the rotating system at selected locations, the sensors being adapted to generate signals representative of dynamic changes at the respective selected locations during rotation, processing means adapted to process the signals from the sensors and to provide output signals for controlling the phase and magnitude of applied forces generated by the actuators and for varying the phase and magnitude characteristics of the applied forces so as to compensate for changes in the dynamic characteristic of the rotating system whereby the overall level of vibration in the fuselage is reduced.
A method of reducing vibration in a helicopter structure which includes a fuselage which is one of supporting and supported by a rotating system parts of the structure being capable of relative motion at an exciting frequency, the method comprising the steps of connecting a plurality of actuators between the relatively movable parts of the structure, oscillating the actuators at a frequency substantially corresponding to the exciting frequency, generating signals representative of dynamic changes at a plurality of locations on the rotating system during rotation and feeding the signals to processing means which are adapted to provide output signals for controlling the phase and magnitude of applied forces generated by the actuators and for varying the phase and magnitude characteristics of the forces so as to compensate for changes in the dynamic characteristic of the rotating system, whereby the overall level of vibration in the fuselage is reduced.
An apparatus for reducing vibration of a structure of a helicopter which comprises a fuselage one of supporting and supported by a rotating system, and in which parts of the structure are capable of relative motion at an exciting frequency, the apparatus comprising a plurality of actuators adapted to be connected between the relatively movable parts of the structure, means in use, continuously to oscillate the actuators at a frequency substantially corresponding to the exciting frequency, and a plurality of sensors adapted to be attached to the rotating system at selected locations on the rotating system, the sensors in use, being adapted to generate signals representative of dynamic changes at the respective selected locations during rotations, the apparatus further comprising processing means adapted to process the signals from the sensors and to provide output signals for controlling the phase and magnitude of applied forces generated by the actuators and for varying the phase and magnitude characteristics of the forces so as to compensate for changes in the dynamic characteristic of the rotating system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.