—e NACA TN No, 1542 GS eB -_ NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR AERONAUTICS TECHNICAL NOTE No, 1542 EFFECT OF ROTOR-BLADE TWIST AND PLAN-FORM TAPER ON HELICOPTER HOVERING PERFORMANCE, By Alfred Gessow Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory Langley Field, Va. Washington February 1948 LIBRARY COPY! APR 3 ROS UBRARY NAGA HAMPTON, VIRGINIAICS 1176 01434 0609 NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR AERONAUTICS TRCHNIGAL NOTE No. 1542 ‘EFFECT OF ROTOR-BLADE TWIST AND PLAN-FORM TAPER ON HELICOPTER HOVERING PERFORMANCE By Alfred Gessow SUMMARY A thocretical enelysis of the hovering perfarmance of rotars having verlous combinations of twist and plen-form teper was made in order to estimate the effects of blade twist and teper on rotor efficiency in hovering. The celoulations were mate with the aid of a strip-analysis procedure similar to that used in propeller analysis, the comparisons ‘being made for rotors of equal solidity, The solidity of the tapered Dledes ves computed by means of en equivalent chord which was derived by weighting the values of chord at each blade element eccording to the squere of its radial distance. ‘The results indicated that at typical operating thrust coefficients, the edition of linear twist of the order of —8° to —12° to rectenguler Dledes having 0,060 solidity may be expected to increase the rotor thrust at fixed pover by approximately 3 to k percent or, if the bledes are = initially tapered with a ratio of root chord to tip chard of 3, by approxi— nately 2 to 3 percent. An increase in thrust of about 5 percent ie indi— cated for a conbinstion of —8° or 12° twist and a teper ratio of 3 to 1. fn additional 2Q-percent gain 1e indicated if e nonlinear optimm combi~ nation of twist end taper is used. Examination of the effects of e moderate change in solidity and of the use of partial rether then full taper indicated that these factors 1a not significantly affect the preceding results, when the sene anoinits of twist and teper vere investigated over the sene thrust-coefficient renge. INTRODUCTION Mothods for the improvement of rotor hovering performance are being sought, especislly in relation to the current interest in large, slo moving, loaf-cerrying helicopters. ‘The selection of the blede-pitch distribution end plan form thet vould yield the meximm rotor thrust for a given pover inprt appears to be an effective and relatively inexpensive2 NACA TN No. 1542 way of achieving this end, The importance of a percentage increase in thrust is more apparent when it ie realized that, with the current ratio of pay load to gross weight (apsrox. 20 percent), the percentage increase in pey load is approximately five times the percentage increase in thrust. Because the improvements in rotor hovering efficiency due to blade twist end taper appear to be of the order of 5 percent, careful experi— mental investigations ere necessery to measure these effects. It was therefore considered desirable to investigate the influence of blade geametry by theoretical methois in order to aid in the plenning end interpreting of experimental investigations, Stendard methods of pro- peller strip analysis vere used in determining the effect of combinations of twist end teper applicable to helicopter rotors, end the results of the investigation ere presented herein, It is important to note that the comparicons vere made for rotors of equal solidity, the solidity of the tapered blades being computed by means of an equivalent chord which vas derived by weighting the values of chord at each blade element accarding to the equere of its radial distance, Different results would be shown for the effects of taper if the rotar solidity were computed on a @ifferent desis, for example, as the ratio of blade area to rotor-disk area. siMBOLs Tt rotor thrust, pounds ™ thrust of one blade, pounds R Dlade radius, fest 8 rotor angular velocity, rediens per second ° mass density of air, slugs per cubic foot oy tteuat coottiotent (a/ai*o(aR)®) & induced rotor tarque, pound-feot % voter profile-dreg torque, pouné-feet Q total rotor tarque, pouni-fest (; + @) Cay induced torque coefficient (95/xk7o(0R)°R) (Gq, em Cq sre Iikoyiao defined an Q or @ aivisea ty xF°o(oR)*R) r redial distance to e blade element, fect x ratio of blade-element redivs tc rotomblade rediue (r/8)NACA TN No. 15U2 ay a, Bos Sys 82 8 Subscript: . Dlade-section chard at radius r, fest R or? ar equivalent blade chord, feet = i 3? ar mumber of blades per rotor beg rotor soliatty (—2 aR solidity of a blade element at a redial distance x (#2) induced inflow velocity at rotor, feet per second Slope of curve of section Lift cosfficient against section angle of attack (redian measure), assumed to be 5.73 Diade-section engle of attack measured from zero-lift Line, redians (6 — $) section lift coefficient section profile-drag coefficient cosffiotents in pover series exjreasing cq, as e function ef oy (oa = 89+ Nee + By") Dlade-secticn pitch angle measured from line of zero Lift, radians inflow angle at blade element, radians (ar » values at the blade tip ‘METHOD OF ANALYSIS ‘The strip-enalysis method used herein is similar to the method given in reference 1 for use in propeller analysis. A summary of a simplification of the analysis as applied to a helicopter rotor follows.4 NACA TN No. 1542 The thrust per unit of blade span may be expressed with the usual assumptions prevailing in rotor theory in coefficient form as a Ebene? @ The rotor torque is composed of the induced and profiledreg contri— butions, The induced part, ar the tarque due to the componente of the Lift vectors in the plane of rotation, is written as ac, wet = E copa? @) ant the proftle-drag contribution és a, ‘The three unkmovns in equations (1) to (3), namely, o,, $, and ap, can be determined from the known geometric and aerodynamic properties of the blade by means of the following relationships: o, = 8 a E(t) 9) a -0-8 © A more gonsral expression for $, covering the vertical-clinb conditions, was derived in reference 2. For the calculations that follow, the blade section characteristics are ascumed to be represented by the following formlas? oy = ay = 56730, mM Bg = 8 + Bath + Bay” = 0,0087 ~ 0,02160,, + 0,400.7 (8) Equation (8) is taken from reference 2 ani represents the section profile- areg coefficient for conventional semiemooth airfoils (dreg of emooth airfoils increased ty e roughness factor of 17 percent). The equationNACA TN No. 1542 5 yields minimm profile-drag coefficient of 0,008 and is representative of well-built plywood bledes. ‘The use of a different drag polar in the analysis vould not-be expected to effect the order of megnitude of the effects of twist and taper. Equations (1) to (3) vere graphically integrated to obtain performance curves of Cy egeinst Cg for each of the blades investigated. Tdeally twisted blede—Ideal tviet is defined es the tvist that would wotuse univam infloy anf, consequontly, minimin induced losses if the rotational loases are ignored. Being very emali (of the order of 1 percent for rotors), rotational losses are not considered in the enlysie, The special case of a rectenguler blede having ideal twist is such that ite performance cen be explicitly expressed in a simple fashion, The expression obtained from equation (A18) of reference 2 is 03/2 8, 48, = +848 b One 3 oe @) imm blade. The optim blade may be defined as a blade that will Produce a given thrust for the least total power required. Tn __ practice, a blade that approaches the optimm 1s one that has uniform inflow over the disk and each section of which 1s operating at the angle of attack that results in the least profiledreg losses, Such © configuration would ‘be expected to be close to the optimm over the normal operating renge of thrust coefficients because in this renge the induced losses are a large percentage of the total losses, It is shown in the appendix that the twist and teyer of a rotor heving both minimm induced and profile~drag losses ere es follows Ong on (10) eo vhere cp and v are constent by definition, ‘The performance of the optimm Slade (derived in the appendix) can be expressed ty woe? og ~ ay a" Ve 79 Wo ‘Te theory used, like the ordinary vortex theory, - number of blades and, therefore, neglects blade interference cr "tip-lose" effects. The effect of the tip- lose on the comparative hovering performance of the various designs investigated in this paper was studied by recalculating the rotor performance6 NACA IN No. 1542 of several representative blade configurations by the method of reference 1, Which includes the Goldstein correction to the vortex theory. The sample studies indicated that, though the assumption of an infinite mmber of Blades overestimated the calculated thrust at fixed power by a maximm of approximately 3 percent, no effect could be noted on the comparative performance of the blades investigated. This conclusion would probebly de invalid if the thrust loading of the designs investigated differed considerably from the optimm losding, which is the loading that will yield minimm induced losses. The thrust loadings of the relatively lightly oaded helicopter rotors investigated are not considered to differ sufficiently from the optimm to affect the analysis. ‘The designs investigated fell well within the limits of applicability of Goldstein's correction factor as discussed in reference 3. SAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS The combinations of twist end plan-form taper of the blades investigated are tabulated as follows; . Blade Blade wist Ratio of root chord solidity (deg) ‘to tip chord ° 8 ii 0.060 -2 Tae. Taeal Optimm plan fom. (- 9 Land 3 - Lend 3 oe 2 Lend 3 Taeal L ‘The emount of linear twist is indicated by the washout, whereas linear taper is indicated by the ratio of root chord to tip chord. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Rotor induced losses, which ere of the order of 6 percent of the total power expended in hovering, are a minimm for a given thrust when the thrust distribution is such that the rotor induced velocity ie uniform across the disk. ‘The induced losses of a rotor for which the inducedNACA TH No. 15h2 T velocity increases with the radius, as 1s the case with rotors having untvisted rectenguler blades, may be minimized by increesing the load cerried by the inner part of the blade. ‘This effect cer. be accomplished vy tristing the blade so that the root end oporates at higher pitch engles then does the tip (washout) or tapering the blade in plen form so that the root chord is greeter than the tip chord. Although profile~drag losses are of less importance then induced losses over the greater part of the normal operating renge of thrust coefficients, the seme expedients of twist and taper are beneficial with respect to the reduction of profile~dreg losses. This condition results from the fact that the profile~drag losses are dependent on the cube of the blade~section velocity, whereas the thrust varies as the square of the velocity} thus, it is advantageous for the thrust to be produced by the low-velocity sections. The discussion of the individual effects of twist and teper that follow are limited to a solidity of 0.060. ‘he extent to which the conclusions are affected by @ chenge in solidity is discussed hereinafter. ‘Effect of twist.- The manner in which twist affects the inflow @ietribution and the blade loading {es represented by the section angles of attack) of on untapered blade operating at a representative thrust coefficient of 0.0056 is shown in figure 1. ‘The induced velocities and section engles of attack ere plotted against the square of the radius in order to put proper emphasis on each blade element inasumich as the thrust contribution of each element varies as the square of the section velocity. The figure indicates that the application of increasing enounts of linear twist approach the effects produced by ideal twist, in that both the induced velocity and the blade loading are increased near the Amboard end of the blade. Although the effects of twist are such that ‘the maximm section angle of attack occurring on the blade is increased, the effects of blede stall are minimized inaamuch as the radial distance of the maximm angle of attack is decreased. The reduction in induced end profile-drag losses that may be realized with a more uniform-inflow distribution may be seen from figure 2, in which both induced and profile torque coefficients are plotted over a range of thrust coefficient for untapered blades having various amounts of twist. ‘The figure indicates that twist is beneficial in reducing rotor losses over the range of thrust coefficient above the conventional minimum (thet 48, above Gr % 0.0030) although the net change in profile-~irag losses appears insignificant. As might be expected, twist is detrimental at thrust coefficients near zero inasmuch as losses are incurred in pro- ducing negative thrust over the outer part of the bledes. The optimm emount of linear twist would consequently decrease with lower operating thrust coefficients. Tt should be noted in figure 2 that e Linear twist of -12° accomplishes most of the reduction of induced loss made possible by ideal twist, and8 NAA TN Wo. 1542 yields; at the seme time,an almost identical profile-dreg loss over the nomal opereting renge. A fev degrees more twist vould probably produce slightly better results, but_twist very much above 12° vould be excessive. Larger amounts of twist would also be undesirable in other flight conditions, The effects of twist illustrated thus far result in the comparative performance shown in figure 3 of the twisted untapered rotors, ‘The curves are compared in the figure with a curve representing the performance of @ rotor having minim induced loss (uniform inflow) and zero profile drag in order to determine the extent to which the ideal rotor can be approached By practical designs. The significant results frou the figure are sumsrized in the following table, which gives the percentage increase in thrust due to blade twist at fixed powers Increase in thrust from Blade taper Ruate ‘vist | (eatio of rose. chard unterered Sade ee) to tip chord) eee Cg = 0.00026 | Ca = 0.000% ° 1 -- : -- 38 1 2 : 12 1 3 Tdeal 1 5 5 ‘The torque coefficients were chosen to correspond to Op = 0.0040 end Op = 0.0060 for the untwisted blade. Effect of teper.- The changes in rotor performance brought about by blade taper are similar to the changes effected by twist,in that the larger choré at the inner part of the blede causes a more miform~inflow Gietribution. The separate beneficial effects of taper on tho induced end profile-drag losses of untwisted blades are shown in figure 4 end the over-all effect 1s show in figure 5. ‘The conclusions to be drewn from those figures are given in the following teble: Increase in thrust from aa Blade taper ‘untapered blade Heech | (ratio of roct chara (ercent) to tip chora) [Gq = 0.00026 | Og = 0.000% 0 1 a = ° 3 2 3 An increase of several percent in hovering performance my not Justify the additional production costs of tapering the bledes used onNACA TN No. 1542 9 smell helicopters, especially when the benefits of twist can be had at no additional production costs. Even amall efficiency gains, hovever, are significant with large helicopters, end the tapering of large-diemeter Dlades eppears highly desirable for structural reasons. ‘Effects of combines twist and taver.- Design considerations make it interesting to determine whether the full performance gains due to twist or taper are realized when both are present. ‘he performance of blades heving both twist and taper were calculated end plotted in figures 6 ani 7 for comparison with figures 3 and 5, which show the effocts of twist and taper ecting separately. ‘The comparison is sumarized in the following tables Blade taper Thrust increase Mate ec | (ratio of root chord (percent) ea) ‘to tip chord) Gq = 0.00026 | Cy = 0.00% Eefect of twist; without teper 9 1 : 8 1 2 2 1 3 ‘Effect of twist; with taper ° 3 = = 6 end -12 3 3 2 Effect of tapers without twist ° 1 = °o 3 2 Effect of taper; with twist 2 2 - = 8 end -12 3 1 1 ‘The increase in thrust obtained with various cambinations of blade ‘wrist end taper as compared with the thrust of an untwisted rectangular ‘lade is shown in the following tables20 RAGA TW Wo. 1542 Blade Increase in thrust from untwieted Blede taper untepered blade . twist (ratio of (percent) (deg) root chard to ‘tip chard) 1q = 0400026 ° L --- 38 3 5 =12 3 5 Ideal, optim 7 Effect of solidity on the benefits of twist ani taper. In order to aeternine the extent to-which the beneflts of Gist aol taper can be obtained vith rotors of lower solidity then the 0,060 solidity treated, a siniler analysis, covering equal amounts of twist ani taper es well as the sane thrust-coefficient range, was made for a rotor having a solitity equal to 0,042, The results are summarized ty the hovering- performance curves of figures 8 and 9. A comparison of these figures vith the equivalent figures for the rotor of 0,060 solidity ahows thet, in general, the same resulte were obtained with both rotors. Etfect of vertial taver.— In conventionally tapered rotor bledes, the taper usually extents from the tip to approximately one-half of the radius, the remainder or inboard part being rectangular in plan form, In order to determine whether the use of partial, rather than full, taper resulted in a loss of hovering efficiency, the performance of a - Dlede tapered over ite outer half and having a ratio of root chord to tip chord of 3 to 1 ( the root chord being calculated by extending the leading and trailing edges of the tapered part to the root) was calculated and compared vith the performance of a fully tapered blede having the same taper ratio and solidity. Little difference was found to exist between the two rotors, probably because the outer and more importent part of each rotor ves tapered in the seme manner. Reference to figure 10 shows the inflow distribution and the pover loss of both the partially end fully tapered rotors operating at the sene thrust coefficient to be similar, which further substantiates this conclusion. : CONCLUDING REMARKS Tho following remarks are based on a theoretical analysis mate of the effects of blade twist end taper on the hovering performance of rotors having solidities of 0,060 end 0,042, the solidities of the 7 tepered blades being computed by means of en equivalent chord.ACA TW No. 15h2 n The addition of linear twist of the order of -8 to -12° to rectangular blades may be expected to increase the thrust produced by the rotor et fixed power by approximately 3 to 4 percent or, if the Dladea are initially tapered with a ratio of root chord to tip chord of 3, by approximately 2 to 3 percent. An increase in thrust of about 5 percent is indicated for a combination of -8° or -12° twist and a taper ratio of 3 to 1. An additional 2-percent gain might be realized ty the use of a nonlinear optimum combination of twist and taper. The use of a moderately lower solidity and partial instead of full taper would not be expected to affect simificently the preceeding conclusions if similer amomts of twist end taper are applied over the same thrust- coefficient range. In connection with the use of twist in blade desi, it should be remembered that negative twist has been fod to improve the efficiency of the rotor in forvard flight es well as in hovering and may be expected to delay blede stalling at high forvard speeds and adverse compressibility effects at high tip speeds. Blade stalling is delayed vhen twist 1e employed because twist unloads the tips ty reducing the tip engles of attack. Compressibility losses are minimized for the ‘same reason, in that the critical Mach number of the blade section is Increased at reduced lift coefficients. Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory National Atvieory Comittee for Aeronautics Langley Field, Ya., Ootober 9, 1972 NACA TN No 1542 APPENDIX “DERIVATION OF PERFORMANCE EQUATION FOR OPTIMUM ROTOR ‘The optimm rotor for hovering 1s closely approximated by one which has a uniform inflow over the disk and which has all its sections operating at a constant angle of attack. In hovering, the blede-element pitch ie Ona +g tate om The pitch distribution for the optimum rotor is thus composed of two parte: a constant part, ayy end a variable part, g, which varies inversely as the radiue for a conatent inflow v. ‘The difterential thrust on a blade elenent te am, = 2 oar)? ange ar @) In orfer to maintain a, independent of r, the chord must now be adjusted so that uniform downwash can be obtained. This latter condition exists when aT varies linearly vith r, that is, when the thrust varies linearly from zero at the blade root to a maximum at the tip. (Such loading 1s associated vith uniform dovawaeh inaemuch as the mase of air influenced by a blade element depenis on the radial Position of the element. Thus aT varies. linearly with r when ¥ is constant along the span.) It can be seen from equation (2) that aT can be mate a linear function of r by letting en ope (3) Substituting equation (3) in equation (2) gives am, = 3 ma? reazepR ar a) ‘The form of equation (4) indicates that the blede 1s producing uniform downwash «NACA TN No. 15h 23 Integrating equation (4) and mitiplying the resulting expression ‘ty the number of blades b to give the total thrust produced by the rotor results in 3 To} oP acy >) Expressed in nondimenstonal form, equation (5) redwes to «, Op = AE ey -Fo G) where ao m Induced Torque ‘The induced torque may be expressed as a “f 2 pfr3c,fo ar (8) With the appropriate substitution for o and g, equation (8) after integration becomes & = 2 e(aR)R?ez0qr (9) In cosfficient form, equation (9) reduces to Cy om (20) From nonentim coneiderations ve = ‘ameuw ACA TW No. 1542 ale an Substituting equations (6) end (11) into equation (10) elves the expression for Cg, finally as og/2 cute (22) Profile-Dreg Torque Tn a eimtlar manner, the profile-drag torque my be expressed as R % “f F olar)®oq 0 arr “2 (0R)*Ropog, (33) or, in nondimensional form, as z Cog = 2 open, (er) With the addition of equations (12) and (14), the performance of the the optimm rotor is cae de (35) oye * 6%, In order to compare the optimm rotor with other rotors of the seme solidity, it 16 necessary to determine the conventionel weighted solidity of stich a rotor. The equivalent chord of the optimm rotor, as calculated from ite definition and equation (3), is ce = 3 op (16) 80 that onder a7)NACA TN No. 1542 6 Thus, in terns of weighted solidity, equation (15) becomes +204, (8)16 ACA TH No. 1542 REFERENCES 1. Lock, C. N. H., and Yeatman, D.: Tables for Use in an Improved Method of Alracrew Strip Theory Calculation. R.&M. No. 167k, British A.R.C., 1935. 2. Gustafson, F.B., and Gessow, Alfred: Effect of Rotor-Tip Speed. on Helicopter Hovering Performance and Meximum Forward Speed. NACA ABR No. I6A16, 1946. 3. Crigler, John L.: Comparison of Calculated end Experimental Propeller Characteristics for Four-, Six-, and Eight-Blade Single-Rotating Propellers. NACA ACR No. 4k, 19h.NACA TN No. 1542 17 10 a 3 ea s é 7 6 2 2” xe @) Inflow distribution. © Ideq! Twist es epee = 6 St 7 2 0 Ce eee Se ee 2 ze (6) Blade-section angla-of-attack distribution. Figure 1.- Effect of twist on spanwise inflow and angle-of-attack distribution of an untapered blade. o = 0,060; Cip = 0,0056,18 NACA TN No, 1542 Blade twist | Blade Twist [7 ed! 2'78:0"° lded/ -I£°-8° 0° 007) b UY, 006 Y 005 Ca.,| Cag Cr 004 003 002) 001 0 ae oO 0001 0008. 0003 0004. 0005 Cai ,Cao Figure 2.- Effect of twist on the induced and profile~drag losses of a rotor having untapered blades. ¢ = 0,060,005 C004 003 ‘002 001 soea/- Blade Twist Me Lat yin, ‘zero proti/ 00008 D005 DO Co Figure 3.- Effect of twist on the performance of rotors having untapered blades. o = 0,060, P91. “ON NIL VOVN 6r20 NACA TN No, 1642 008 Root chord _ a 007) I Tip chord ~ : 006 Cr 004 col Zl 0 000/_~—«.000R.~—=«0003~S=—«000%~—«0008 Ca; s Cae Figure 4.- Effect of taper on the induced and profile-drag losses of rotors having untwisted blades. ¢ = 0,060.007 006 Cr 004 003 002 00! Untorm intlow, 270 profile arag. 16 004 Ca 000% 00040 Figure 6.- Effect of taper on the performance of rotors having untwisted blades. o = 0,060. SPST “ON NL VOVN 18007 Uniform intiow, ud ‘zero profile drag Cr 004 ‘003 002 00f 0 00016 ey Figure 6.- Effect of twist on the performance of rotors having blades that are tapered so that the ratio of root chord to tip chord is 3. = 0.060. 8 BPST ‘CN NLL WON008 Pet chord) fmum| 1 chord .007 Lae : L 006 005 Cr 004 ro 0083 FA 001 E o 20006 BOG DOE WO 0 00046 Ce Figure 7.~ Comparison of the performance of the optimum rotor with the performance of rotors :having blades with -12° twist. 9% = 0,060, @PST ‘ON NL VOVN 8B008 007 006 Xi, 005 |—L- —|. Uniform anftow, | zero pronle drag. Cr 004 By8 003 HZ 7 001 0 7 Bais TOO WORE DoD & Figure 8.- Effect of twist on the performance of rotors having untapered blades. DO0FE o = 0,042, @PST “ON NL VOVN007 Cr 004 003 002 oo! Figure 9.- a saeT Uniform inflow, ‘Zero profi ea EA M6 00084 . 00040 00048 co Effect of both twist and taper on rotor performance. ¢ = 0.042. BPST ‘ON NL VOVN 1dri) a) ——— Full Foper 06} ——Parhal taper Vv } oR i | oe 0 i oe oO ff & 3 a Ss 6 7 8 9 40 xe Figure 10.- Effect of partial taper and full taper on rotor inflow distribution. .042; blade twist, - 8°; ratio of root chord to tp chord, 3; Crp = 0.0082. 08 PST ‘ON NL VOWN