A.R Gorjipoor - Graduated in MSc
A Abedian - Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Sharif University

Optimization of helicopter components relies, perhaps to a greater extent than for any other aerospace vehicle, on the tight integration of a variety of aeronautical engineering disciplines. Utilizing a method for multi-objective design optimization of structure of rotor blades has been a challenging endeavor.In this paper the focus is on two major subjects. Firstly, Genetic Algorithm (GA) is introduced as an effective tool for the purpose of multi-objective optimization of the blades specially the composite ones. In the process of optimization the weight of the blade, the deflections due to aerodynamic and inertia loads at hovering and also the stress tolerance of structure (Safety Factor) are considered as design parameters and the laminate configuration (i.e. the fiber orientation, thickness and number of layers) and the material as design variables. Secondly, a comparison of the effectiveness of the optimization process for composite and isotropic blades and also the optimum blades achieved from each process is presented. The results show that the GA can be utilized as an effective optimization tool especially for the structure of composite blades which has more complicated searching space. Better structural characteristics of composite blades compared to isotropic ones shows that they have the potential to replace the ordinary blades

Optimization, Multiobjective, Genetic Algorithm, Composite Blades