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.

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.

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.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF AERODYNAMICINTERACTION EFFECT OF ROTOR WAKE ONFUSELAGE OF HELICOPTER

The interaction effect of rotor wake on fuselage of helicopter was investigated with experimental method. The results from experiment have proved that for the drag of fuselage the effect of rotor airflow is closely in connection with both the flight speed and the collective pitch of blades, while for the thrust and pitch moment of fuselage the collective pitch angle of blades plays more important role. A simple and effective computing method about aerodynamic interaction can be derived from the measured data. In order to implement the experiment, a fuselage model, a special sensor, the measurement and data acquisition and processing system were designed and manufactured according to the special requirements of this research project, thereby a good base was built up for carrying out experiments successfully with high quality.

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.

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.