Analysis of fan blade vibration with a non-contact method

Composite fan blades are more and more common both in aviation and ground applications. This work aims to characterize the vibration parameters of plastic blades installed in a wind tunnel fan by a non-contact method, namely blade tip timing (BTT). Blade dynamics was predicted with finite element modelling (FEM) and confirmed experimentally by tip timing measurements and analysis of data. BTT results were acquired and compared in two different configurations. A good agreement between predicted and measured frequency values was obtained for the fundamental mode. Significant differences were observed for the second and third modes due to material anisotropy and contact effects which could not be modelled because necessary material data were unavailable.