System and Method for Determining Helicopter Rotor Blade Performance

摘要

A helicopter rotor blade performance system (BPS) allows for accurate determination of blade track height and blade track phase while reducing size, weight, and complexity of the system. The BPS uses sensing technology that is scalable to adapt to a variety of helicopters and is readily and unobtrusively installed. The BPS includes a bused smart system methodology that can directly measure track height, while phase can be estimated using the time synchronous average of the magnitude or range of the return signal from a radar wave. The BPS includes a rotation monitor, radar tracker, and control unit, that allows for a determination of the track errors and consequentially whether a track rebalancing should occur.

主权项

1. A blade performance monitoring system comprising:
a rotation monitor capable of generating a zero crossing time; a radar tracker configured to capture time domain data and to receive said zero crossing time; and a control unit configured to transmit commands to and receive information from said radar tracker and said rotation monitor,
wherein said control unit synchronizes said rotation monitor and said radar tracker, andwherein said radar tracker determines a blade track height and phase based upon said time domain data and said zero crossing time.