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Coupled flight dynamics and CFD – demonstration for helicopters in shipborne environment

Part of: Rotorcraft Virtual Engineering Conference 2016

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2017

C. Crozon ,
R. Steijl  and
G.N. Barakos
C. Crozon
Affiliation:
CFD Laboratory, University of Glasgow, School of Engineering, Glasgow, UK
R. Steijl
Affiliation:
CFD Laboratory, University of Glasgow, School of Engineering, Glasgow, UK
G.N. Barakos*
Affiliation:
CFD Laboratory, University of Glasgow, School of Engineering, Glasgow, UK
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

The development of high-performance computing and computational fluid dynamics methods have evolved to the point where it is possible to simulate complete helicopter configurations with good accuracy. Computational fluid dynamics methods have also been applied to problems such as rotor/fuselage and main/tail rotor interactions, performance studies in hover and forward flight, rotor design, and so on. The GOAHEAD project is a good example of a coordinated effort to validate computational fluid dynamics for complex helicopter configurations. Nevertheless, current efforts are limited to steady flight and focus mainly on expanding the edges of the flight envelope. The present work tackles the problem of simulating manoeuvring flight in a computational fluid dynamics environment by integrating a moving grid method and the helicopter flight mechanics solver with computational fluid dynamics. After a discussion of previous works carried out on the subject and a description of the methods used, validation of the computational fluid dynamics for ship airwake flow and rotorcraft flight at low advance ratio are presented. Finally, the results obtained for manoeuvring flight cases are presented and discussed.

Keywords

CFDflight dynamicsshipborne helicopterautopilot
Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 122 , Issue 1247 , January 2018 , pp. 42 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2017 

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Footnotes

This is a version of a paper first presented at the RAeS Virtual Engineering Conference held at Liverpool University, 8-10 November 2016.

References

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