Fatigue and Damage Tolerance Evaluation of Composite Helicopter Rotor Blades

복합재 헬리콥터 로터 블레이드의 피로 및 손상허용 평가 방안

Fatigue evaluations for the rotor blades of commercial or military rotorcraft have been carried out using the safe life concept since 1950s. Particularly, in the case of a rotor blade made of a composite material, a highly reliable fatigue life could be predicted by evaluation the cumulative damage using combination of fatigue life curve and load spectrum. However, there is a limit in adequately evaluating the strength reducing phenomena caused by damages or defects generated during the manufacturing process or impact damage induced by operational usages, using only the safe life concept. In this study, the fatigue evaluation process based on the damage tolerance concept is described and illustrated by means of successful application to substantiate the retirement time of composite rotor blades.