Numerical Simulation of Aerodynamic Interaction Effects in Coaxial Compound Helicopters

The so-called coaxial compound helicopter features two rigid coaxial rotors,and possesses high-speed capabilities.Nevertheless,the small separation of the coaxial rotors causes severe aerodynamic interactions,which require careful analysis.In the present work,the aerodynamic interaction between the various helicopter components is investigated by means of a numerical method considering both hover and forward flight conditions.While a sliding mesh method is used to deal with the rotating coaxial rotors,the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS)equations are solved for the flow field.The Caradonna&Tung(CT)rotor and Harrington-2 coaxial rotor are considered to validate the numerical method.The results show that the aerodynamic interaction of the two rigid coaxial rotors significantly influences hover’s induced velocity and pressure distribution.In addition,the average thrust of an isolated coaxial rotor is smaller than that of the corresponding isolated single rotor.Compared with the isolated coaxial rotor,the existence of the fuselage results in an increment in the thrust of the rotors.Furthermore,these interactions between the components of the considered coaxial compound helicopter decay with an increase in the advance ratio.

Parametric Effect Investigation on Aerodynamic Interaction Characteristics for Tandem Rotors in Forward Flight

An iterative free-wake computational method is developed for the prediction of aerodynamic interaction characteristics between the twin rotors of a tandem helicopter.Here the mutual interaction effects between twin rotors are included,as well as those between the rotor and wake.A rotor wake model,blade aerodynamic model and rotor trim model are coupled during the process of solution.A new dual-rotor trim approach is presented to fit for the aerodynamic interaction calculations between tandem twin rotors.By the present method,the blade aerodynamic loads and rotor performance for the twin rotors under the interactional condition are calculated,and the comparisons with available experimental data are also made to indicate the capability of the proposed method.Then,the effects of such parameters as the longitudinal separation and axial separation between twin rotors on the aerodynamic interaction characteristics are analyzed.Based on the investigation,the conclusions are obtained to be of benefit to the configuration design of tandem rotors.Furthermore,the performance comparison between the tandem rotors and a single rotor is conducted.It is shown that the strongest interaction does not appear in a hover state,but in a low-speed forward flight state.

Numerical simulation of aerodynamic interaction for a tilt rotor aircraft in helicopter mode

A rotor CFD solver is developed for simulating the aerodynamic interaction phenomenon among rotor, wing and fuselage of a tilt rotor aircraft in its helicopter mode. The unsteady Navier-Stokes equations are discretized in inertial frame and embedded grid system is adopted for describing the relative motion among blades and nacelle/wing/fuselage. A combination of multi-layer embedded grid and 'extended hole fringe' technique is complemented in original grid system to tackle grid assembly difficulties arising from the narrow space among different aerodynamic components, and to improve the interpolation precision by decreasing the cell volume discrepancy among different grid blocks. An overall donor cell searching and automatic hole cutting technique is used for grid assembly, and the solution processes are speeded up by introduction of OpenMP parallel method. Based on this solver, flow fields and aerodynamics of a tilt rotor aircraft in hover are simulated with several rotor collective angles, and the corresponding states of an isolated rotor and rotor/wing/fuselage model are also computed to obtain reference solution. Aerodynamic interference influences among the rotor and wing/fuselage/nacelle are analyzed, and some meaningful conclusions are drawn. (C) 2016 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd.

Aerodynamic Interactions Between Wing and Body of a Model Insect in Forward Flight and Maneuvers

The aerodynamic interactions between the body and the wings of a model insect in forward flight and maneuvers are studied using the method of numerically solving the Navier-Stokes equations over moving overset grids. Three cases are con- sidered, including a complete insect, wing pair only and body only. By comparing the results of these cases, the interaction effect between the body and the wing pair can be identified. The changes in the force and moment coefficients of the wing pair due to the presence of the body are less than 4.5% of the mean vertical force coefficient of the model insect; the changes in the aero- dynamic force coefficients of the body due to the presence of the wings are less than 5.0% of the mean vertical force coefficient of the model insect. The results of this paper indicate that in studying the aerodynamics and flight dynamics of a flapping insect in forward flight or maneuver, separately computing （or measuring） the aerodynamic forces and moments on the wing paig and on the body could be a good approximation.

Numerical simulation of aerodynamic interactions among helicopter rotor,fuselage,engine and body of revolution

Numerical simulations of helicopter aerodynamic interactions among the main rotor,fuselage,engine inlets/outlets and slung loads of specific geometries have been conducted by very few researchers.In this work,the steady-state compressible Reynolds-averaged navier-stokes equations are solved to study the aerodynamic interactions among helicopter rotor,fuselage,engine and body of revolution in three cases,namely MI-171V5,ROBIN and UH-60A.In the first case,the downwash flow provided by the rotor of the uniform actuator disc model induces a significant deflection of the airflow velocity.The vortex-shaped distribution and evolution are discussed in detail.The engine can effectively change the overall flow field.The asymmetry of the flow field is observed by using the non-uniform actuator disc model.Qualitative analysis of ROBIN and quantitative computation of UH-60A show a consistent accuracy of the rotating reference frame model for rotor.The blade tip vortex motion of UH-60A is simulated and its radial position prediction is compared to empirical formulas.While performing flow of UH-60A in hover,both the fuselage normal force and rotor lift decrease because of the impact of the body of revolution.

Unsteady characteristic research on aerodynamic interaction of slotted wingtip in flapping kinematics

The slotted wingtip structure of birds is considered to be the product of improving flight efficiency in the process of evolution. It can change the vortex structure of wingtip and improve aerodynamic efficiency. This paper reports a numerical investigation of slotted wing configuration undergoing bio-inspired flapping kinematics(consisting of plunging and in-line movement)extracted from a free-flying bald eagle wing. The aim is to eluci-date the collective mechanism of the flow generated by slotted tips and the lift contribution of each tip. Specifi-cally, the objective of the study is to determine how changes in the wing spacing affect the resulting aerodynamic interaction between the slotted tips and how that affects the force generation and efficiency. Changes in the phase angle between the flapping motions of slotted tips, as well as the spacings among them,can affect the resulting vortex inter-actions. The rear tips often operates in the wake of the frontal tips and, meanwhile, the vortex generated by the movement of the rear tips promote the frontal tips.The interaction of vortices in time and space leads to wing-wing interference and the flow around slotted tips becomes complicated and unstable. The innovative study of wingtip slot in unsteady state leads us to find that the aerodynamic interaction among slotted tips makes the overall lift characteristic better than that of the unslotted wings. The slotted wing configuration can efficiently convert more energy into lift. As the flapping frequency increases, the collective feature of slotted wing with constantly changing gaps can be more advantageous to enhance lift-generation performance.

The influence of the wake of a flapping wing on the production of aerodynamic forces

The effect of the wake of previous strokes on the aerodynamic forces of a flapping model insect wing is studied using the method of computational fluid dynamics. The wake effect is isolated by comparing the forces and flows of the starting stroke （when the wake has not developed） with those of a later stroke （when the wake has developed）. The following has been shown. （1） The wake effect may increase or decrease the lift and drag at the beginning of a half-stroke （downstroke or upstroke）, depending on the wing kinematics at stroke reversal. The reason for this is that at the beginning of the half-stroke, the wing “impinges” on the spanwise vorticity generated by the wing during stroke reversal and the distribution of the vorticity is sensitive to the wing kinematics at stroke reversal. （2） The wake effect decreases the lift and increases the drag in the rest part of the half-stroke. This is because the wing moves in a downwash field induced by previous half-stroke＇s starting vortex, tip vortices and attached leading edge vortex （these vortices form a downwash producing vortex ring）. （3） The wake effect decreases the mean lift by 6%-18% （depending on wing kinematics at stroke reversal） and slightly increases the mean drag. Therefore, it is detrimental to the aerodynamic performance of the flapping wing.

Numerical Investigation of the Unsteady Flow in a Transonic Compressor with Curved Rotors

The unsteady 3D flow fields in a single-stage transonic compressor under designed conditions are simulated numerically to investigate the effects of the curved rotors on the stage performance and the aerodynamic interaction between the blade rows. The results show that, compared to the compressor with unurved rotors, the compressor under scrutiny acquires remarkable increases in efficiency with significantly reduced amplitudes of the time-dependent fluctuation. The amplitude of the pressure fluctuation around the stator leading edge decreases at both endwalls, but increases at the mid-span in the curved rotors. The pressure fluctuation near the stator leading edge, therefore, becomes more uniform in the radial direction of this compressor. Except for the leading edge area, the pressure fluctuatinn amplitude declines remarkably in the tip region of stator surface downstream of the curved rotor, but hardly changes in the middle and at the hub.

Numerical Simulation of Rotor-aerodynamic Surface Interaction in Hover Using Moving Chimera Grid

Three-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes equations are numerically solved to simulate the aerodynamic interaction of rotor, canard and horizontal tail in hover based on moving chimera grid. The variations of unsteady aerodynamic forces and moments of the canard and horizontal tail with respect to the rotor azimuth are analyzed with the deflection angle set at 0° and 50°, respectively. The pressure map of aerodynamic surfaces and velocity vector distribution of flow field are investigated to get better understanding of the unsteady aerodynamic interaction. The result shows that the canard and horizontal tail present different characteristics under the downwash of the rotor. The canard produces much vertical force loss with low amplitude fluctuation. Contrarily, the horizontal tail, which is within the flow field induced by the down wash of the rotor, produces only less vertical force loss, but the amplitudes of the lift and pitching moment are larger, implying that a potential deflection angle scheme in hover is 50° for the canard and 0° for the horizontal tail.

WAKE GEOMETRY CALCULATIONS FOR TILT-ROTOR USING VISCOUS VORTEX METHOD

A tilt-rotor unsteady flow analytical method has been developed based upon viscous vortex-particle method.In this method,the vorticity field is divided into small assembled vortex particles.Vortex motion and diffusion are obtained by solving the velocity-vorticity-formed incompressible Navier-Stokes equations using agrid-free Lagrangian simulation method.Generation of the newly vortex particles is calculated by using the Weissinger-L lifting surface model.Furthermore,in order to significantly improve computational efficiency,a fast multiple method(FMM)is introduced into the calculation of induced velocity and its gradient.Finally,the joint vertical experimental(JVX)tilt-rotor is taken as numerical examples to analyze.The wake geometry and downwash are investigated for both hover and airplane modes.The proposed method for tilt-rotor flow analysis is verified by comparing its results with those available measured data.Comparison indicates that the current method can accurately capture the complicated tilt-rotor wake variation and be suitable for aerodynamic interaction simulation in complex environments.Additionally,the aerodynamic interactional characteristics of dual-rotor wake are discussed in different rotor distance.Results show that there are significant differences on interactional characteristics between hover mode and airplane mode.

A Biomimetic Rotor-configuration Design for Optimal Aerodynamic Performance in Quadrotor Drone

Motivated by optimal combination of paired wings configuration and troke-plane inclination in biological flapping flights that can achieve high aerodynamic performance,we propose a biomimetic rotor-configuration design to explore optimal aerodynamic performance in multirotor drones.While aerodynamic interactions among propellers in multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)play a crucial role in lift force production and Figure of Merit(FM)efficiency,the rotor-configuration effect remains poorly understood.Here we address a Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)-based study on optimal aerodynamic performance of the rotor-configuration in hovering quadrotor drones with a specific focus on the aerodynamic effects of tip distance,height difference and tilt angle of propellers.Our results indicate that the tip distance-induced interactions can most alter lift force production and hence lead to remarked improvement in FM,and the height difference also plays a key role in improving aerodynamic performance,while the tilt angle effect is less important.Furthermore,we carried out an extensive analysis to explore the optimal aerodynamic performance of the rotor-configuration over a broad parameter space,by combining the CFD-based simulations and a novel surrogate model.We find that a rotor-configuration with a large tip distance and some height difference with zero tilt angle is capable of optimizing both lift force production and FM,which could offer a novel optimal design as well as maneuver strategy for multirotor UAVs.

Investigation on aerodynamic force effect of vacuum plumes using pressure-sensitive paint technique and CFD-DSMC solution

Pressure-sensitive paint(PSP) technique was employed to experimentally investigate the aerodynamic force effect of vacuum plume in this study. The characterization and comparison for two types of PSP were firstly conducted in an air pressure range from0.05 to 5000 Pa. The PSPs were prepared using PtTFPP as the active dye and different binders, i.e., polymer-ceramic(PC) and poly(1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne) [poly(TMSP)]. The static calibrations showed that PtTFPP/poly(TMSP) had a higher pressure sensitivity and a lower temperature dependency compared to PtTFPP/PC in this pressure range. The pressure distributions of a single and two interacting plumes impinging onto a flat plate model were measured using PSP technique. The experimental data were compared to numerical solutions that combined both the computed fluid dynamics(CFD) and direct simulation Monte Carlo(DSMC) methods. Remarkable agreements were achieved, demonstrating the feasibility and accuracy of the numerical approach.Finally, the aerodynamic force effect of interacting plumes at different separation distances was investigated numerically.