comparison of a special purpose processor with a general purpose processor and a numerical approach in generating helicopter dynamics equations

Presently three schemes are used to generate the governing equations of motion. These schemes are: (1) general purpose processors such as REDUCE, MACSYMA and MAPLE, (2) a special purpose symbolic processor DEHIM--Dynamic Equations for Helicopter Interpretive Models and (3) completely numerical approaches such as AGEM--Automatic Generation of Equations of Motion. With REDUCE as a representative multipurpose processor in scheme 1, comparative aspects of these three schemes have been studied by applying them to the same set of problems. These problems range from a linear model of a single blade with one degree of freedom to a mildly nonlinear three-bladed rotor model with several degrees of freedom. The derivation process includes the nonlinear equations and the perturbed linear equations about a user-supplied equilibrium state in a rotating frame and then the multiblade equations, which represent transformation into a nonrotating frame using multiblade coordinates. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)