Eurocopter

Airbus Helicopters

Alain Struzik

Elio Zoppitelli

Vincent Scala

Michel Salvy

An energy-absorbing connecting strut comprises a substantially straight rigid body with means of connection to two components which it links, and undergoing tensile/compressive stresses. The body comprising a buckling portion with a calibrated buckling load corresponding to a compressive load threshold, a hollowed portion housing a component absorbing energy by plastic deformation in compression, and a piston moving integrally with a rigid axial end part of the body. The body is configured so that under a compressive load greater than the compressive load threshold, the buckling portion deforms causing axial shortening of the connecting strut and movement of the piston with the rigid part, so that the piston crushes and plastically deforms the energy-absorbing component, limiting the load amplitude. The energy-absorbing strut may be used as a suspension strut of a main gearbox on the structure of a rotary wing aircraft.

Energy-absorbing connecting strut for use as a gearbox suspension strut for rotary wing aircraft

The present invention relates to a method and to a device for determining the state of a vibrating structure of a rotary wing aircraft, while the latter is operating. The device includes sensors arranged on the vibrating structure and capable of measuring the values of vibrational parameters, and a calculation unit receiving the values measured by the sensors and calculating, from these and from estimated values of the vibrational parameters, a correlation coefficient, comparing the latter with a predefined range of values and deducing from this comparison the state of the vibrating structure.

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rue du Val Saint-André, France

Alain Struzik