Parameter identification of aeroelastic modes of rotary wings from transient time histories

A novel moving-block technique is presented for parameter-identification tasks concerning the aeroelastic modes of rotary wings, using a least-squares solver in the time domain to estimate dampings and eigenvector components. The least-squares moving-block (LSMB) technique is shown to yield superior estimates to those of the previous moving-block technique for four different analytical test cases. An additional advantage of the LSMB approach is its ability to estimate eigenvector components with good accuracy; this feature is useful in assessing the coupling of the different modes. The method can also be used to perform periodic modal identification, and is applicable to experimental data for the extraction of modal information.