Optimum data utilization for parameter identification with application to lifting rotors

The work is concerned with determining the minimum quantity of data needed for achieving best possible accuracy of identified parameters in transient testing of a lifting rotor blade. Specifically, the problem is that of determining from blade flapping transients caused by blade pitch inputs the equivalent Lock number and the equivalent collective pitch setting. For a given time-dependent blade pitch input function, the running time for the test less than which insufficient parameter accuracy is obtained and more than which little accuracy improvement is achieved was calculated with the aid of the Cramer-Rao lower bound for the parameter covariance matrix.