January 30, 2012
Dr. Jayant Sirohi was selected to receive the ASME/Boeing Best Paper Award. The paper, entitled "Measurement of Deformation of Rotating Blades Using Digital Image Correlation" (AIAA 2011-1876) by Jayant Sirohi and Michael Lawson, was presented at the 2011 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference (SDM) in Denver, Colorado.
For the last two years, Sirohi has worked with Michael Skylar Lawson (BS ASE ’09, MS ASE ’11), and ASE PhD candidate Jerome Sicard on a self-funded research project with the goal of measuring the deformation of rotor blades in flight.
Helicopter blades are very long and flexible and as they rotate, aerodynamic forces act upon them, eventually causing the shape of the blades to deform.
By developing a non-contact optical technique to measure the deformed shape of the blades, the measurements can be made while the blades are spinning. Taking these measurements while the blades are in motion provides information about what the blades are doing and where they are located.
“This is important because when we know where the blades are, we can control how the blades move,” Sirohi said. “This would make the ride smoother, improve safety, and increase the efficiency of flights.”
Sirohi has shown with his research experiments in the Aeroelasticity Lab that the technique works, at least on a small scale.
“This paper was to prove that this technique worked on the small scale – a rotor up to 1 meter in diameter,” Sirohi said. “We are going to keep working on to see if we can increase the scope to a full size helicopter rotor blade.”
Sirohi, who previously worked at Sikorsky Aircraft Corp in Connecticut, ultimately hopes to get his project funded by a helicopter company.
“We plan to pursue the project with high hopes that we will find a helicopter company to fund a flight test,” Sirohi said. “The fact that the project has given us good results and that we received an award for it, shows us that we are heading in the right direction.”
The award will be presented to Sirohi at the SDM conference in Hawaii this April. The prize includes a framed certificate and $1,000 honorarium.
Sirohi joined the Cockrell School of Engineering as an ASE/EM Assistant Professor in fall of 2008.
