Introduction

• The blade element theory (BET) forms the basis of most modem analyses of
helicopter rotor aerodynamics because it provides estimates of the radial and
azimuthal distributions of blade aerodynamic loading over the rotor disk.
• The BET assumes that each blade section acts as a quasi-2D airfoil to produce
aerodynamic forces (and moments).
• Tip loss and other empirical factors may be applied to account for three-
dimensional effects.
• Rotor performance can be obtained by integrating the sectional airloads at each
blade ele­ment over the length of the blade and averaging the result over a rotor
revolution.
• Therefore, unlike the simple momentum theory, the BET can be used as a basis to
help design the rotor blades in terms of the blade twist, the planform distribution
and perhaps also the airfoil shape to provide a specified overall rotor performance.
Figure 1 Incident velocities
and aerodynamic environment
at a typical blade element
Blade Element Analysis in Hover and Axial Flight
• The resultant local flow velocity at any blade element at a radial distance y from
the rotational axis has an out-of-plane component normal to the rotor
as a result of climb and induced inflow and an in-plane component
p parallel to the rotor because of blade rotation, relative to the disk
plane.
• The resultant velocity at the blade element is, therefore,
Integrated Rotor Thrust and Power
• To find the total CT and CQ, the incremental thrust and power quantities
derived above must be integrated along the blade from the root to the tip. For a
rectangular blade, the thrust- coefficient is
Thrust Approximations
Based on steady linearized aerodynamics, the local blade lift coefficient can be
written as
Untwisted Blades, Uniform Inflow
Linearly Twisted Blades, Uniform Inflow
• All helicopter rotor blades use some amount of spanwise twist in their shape,
although in different forms and with different amounts.
• As will be shown, the use of blade twist provides the rotor with several
important performance advantages. Many helicopter rotor blades are designed
with a linear twist, so that
• According to the BET, the incremental power coefficient on the rotor can be
Torque-Power Approximations

written as
Tip-Loss Factor
• for the effects on the rotor thrust and induced power because of the locally
high induced velocities produced at the blade tips by the trailed tip vortices.
• The basic form of the BET permits a finite lift to be produced at the blade tip,
which, of course, is physically unrealistic.
• The Prandtl tip-loss factor B is used to represent this loss of blade lift and can
be considered as an "effective" blade radius, Re = BR. In practice, B is found
to take a value between 0.95 and ,0.98 for most helicopter rotors.
• When the tip loss is included in the calculation of rotor thrust using the BET,
one approach is to consider the outer portion of the blade, R - Re , to be
incapable of carrying lift.
• In this case the result for the lift is given by integrating the segment lift over
the effective blade span as
 Blade Element Momentum Theory (BEMT)
• The blade element momentum theory (BEMT) for hovering rotors is a hybrid
method that was first proposed for helicopter use by Gustafson & Gessow
( 1946) and Gessow (1948) and combines the basic principles from both the
blade element and momentum theory approaches.
• The principles involve the invocation of the equivalence between the
circulation and momentum theories of lift. With certain assumptions, the
BEMT allows the inflow distribution along the blade to be estimated.
• Consider first the application of the conservation laws to an annulus of the
rotor disk, This annulus is at a distance y from the rotational axis, and
has a width dy. The area of this annulus is, therefore,
• The incremental thrust, dT, on this annulus may be calculated on the basis of
simple momentum the­ory and with the 2-D assumption that successive rotor
annuli have no mutual effects on each other.
• As might be expected, this approach has good validity except near the blade
tips.
• The removal of this 2-D restriction requires a considerably more advanced
treatment of the problem using a vortex wake theory. However, a good
approximation to the tip-loss effect on the inflow distribution can be made
using Prandtl's "circulation­loss" function,
• On the basis of simple one-dimensional momentum theory , the mass flow
rate over the annulus of the disk is
Radial Inflow Equation
• Although it is clear from the foregoing that if the inflow can be determined, considerable
information about the rotor performance can be obtained.
• The issue is now to devise an approach that can solve for the inflow directly, without
making any assumptions as to its magnitude or form.
• One solution can be obtained using a hybrid blade element and momentum approach using
the principles of the equivalence between the circulation theory of lift the momentum theory
of lift. From the BET it has been shown in Eq. 3.15 that the incremental thrust produced on
an annulus of the disk is
Ideal Twist

This twist distribution is called ideal twist

and is shown in Fig. 3.6.
This solution lays down the goal for a rotor
blade design because the uniform inflow
case must always correspond to the
minimum induced power for the rotor when
operating in hover or in axial climb.
Unfortunately, the hyperbolic form of pitch
angle or twist distribution given by Eq.
3.63 is physically unrealizable as r  0.
Figure 3.6 Radial distribution of blade twist in ideal case
Blade Element Analysis in Forward Flight
• For a helicopter, the rotor must provide both a lifting force (in opposition to the
aircraft weight) and a propulsive force (to overcome the rotor and airframe
drag) in forward flight.
• In- forward flight, the rotor moves almost edgewise through the air, and the
blade sections must encounter a periodic variation in local velocity.
• This gives rise to a number of complications in the aerodynamics of the rotor,
including the effects of blade flapping, significant compressibility effects,
unsteady effects, nonlinear aerodynamics, and the possibility of stall, reverse
flow, and so on, and the complex induced velocity from the rotor wake. All
these effects are difficult to model.
• These solutions are very instructive and also provide closed form expressions
that can be used for validation or as "sanity checks" when analyzing the results
from more comprehensive mathematical models of the rotor aerodynamics.
The use of such checks is considered good engineering practice
 Definition of the Approximate Induced Velocity Field
Besides accounting for the effects of blade pitch and flapping motion, the blade
element method in forward flight requires an estimate of the induced velocity
field, which is no longer axisymmetric.
• The effects of the individual tip vortices tend to produce a highly nonuniform
inflow over the rotor disk, and the calculation of these effects is a formidable
undertaking. Nevertheless, the performance of the rotor can be analyzed with
the aid of simpler models that represent the basic effects on the inflow resulting
from the rotor wake.
• These models are called "inflow" models and can be formulated on the basis of
experimental results or more advanced vortex theories.
• Because of their simplicity, inflow models have found great utility in many
problems in helicopter rotor aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, and flight dynamics
Linear Inflow Models
• A remarkable in-flight experiment to measure the time-averaged-induced
velocity over the rotor disk in forward flight was made by Brotherhood &
Stewart (1949). Based on measurements of the angular displacements of smoke
streamers introduced upstream of the rotor, the longitudinal inflow variation
was determined to be approximately linear.