Assessment of Composite Rotor Blade Modeling Techniques

In the present paper, an assessment is made of the state‐of‐the‐art in modeling composite rotors with a view of bringing out the influence of special characteristics of composite materials. The review encompasses the modeling of thin‐ and thick‐walled composite rotors, the influences of non‐classical effects such as out‐of‐plane warping, warping restraints, and transverse shear, non‐uniformities in blade construction, large deformations, aeroelastic stability in hover and in forward flight, aeromechanical stability and optimization. The paper includes recommendations for future directions in these topics.