Solid Particle Erosion Area of Rotor Blades: Application on Small-Size Unmanned Helicopters

Abstract

Rotor blades play an important role in unmanned helicopters, and it is of great significance to study the erosion of rotor blades. In this study, titanium alloy (Ti-4Al-1.5Mn) was used as the helicopter rotor blades’ surface material. The commercial software Ansys-Fluent 18.0 was mainly used to study the erosion of solid particles on the helicopter rotor blades. The moving mesh method and the discrete phase method (DPM) were used to construct an erosion model of the blades at different speeds (500, 1000, or 2000 rpm), and at different particle mass flow rates (0.5, 1, or 1.5 kg/s). The results show that the erosion of helicopter blades is mainly observed at the leading edge and at the tip of the blades. At different particle mass flow rates, greater particle mass flow rates lead to greater DPM erosion rates. As the blade speed increases, the maximum DPM erosion rate decreases, but the severely eroded area increases. Finally, the values of the severely eroded area of the helicopter rotor blades and the ratios of the severely eroded area growth are obtained through the image processing method.