Trimmed CFD Simulation of a Complete Helicopter Configuration

Kurzfassung

An investigation was carried out using the flight mechanics tool HOST weakly coupled to the RANS solver FLOWer to simulate the flow around helicopter configuration under different flight conditions. The configuration considered was a wind tunnel model with powered 4.2 meter four-bladed main rotor, and 0.73 meter two bladed tail rotor. Two forward flight conditions at Mach number equal to 0.059 and 0.204 were considered at 5o and -2o angle of attack, respectively. The objective was to asses the aerodynamic interference between helicopter components by comparing the main rotor and fuselage loads with their counterparts obtained from isolated fuselage and isolated rotor simulation. The study revealed noticeable changes in the load distribution on the main rotor between the isolated rotor and full helicopter cases, but only negligible differences in power consumption resulted. Major changes in the fuselage loads and surface pressure were also found.