• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.190-199
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• 2011

Unsteady flow simulations of complete helicopter configurations were conducted, and the flow fields and the aerodynamic interferences between the main rotor, fuselage, and tail rotor were investigated. For these simulations, a three-dimensional flow solver based on unstructured meshes was used, coupled with an overset mesh technique to handle relative motion among those components. To validate the flow solver, calculations were made for a UH-60A complete helicopter configuration at high-speed and low-speed forward flight conditions, and the unsteady airloads on the main rotor blade were compared to available flight test data and other calculated results. The results showed that the fuselage changed the rotor inflow distribution in the main rotor blade airloads. Such unsteady vibratory airloads were produced on the fuselage, which were nearly in-phase with the blade passage over the fuselage. The flow solver was then applied to the simulation of a generic complete helicopter configuration at various flight conditions, and the results were compared with those of the CAMRAD-II comprehensive analysis code. It was found that the main rotor blades strongly interact with a pair of disk-vortices at the outer edge of the rotor disk plane, which leads to high pulse airloads on the blade, and these airloads behave differently depending on the specific flight condition.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.519-529
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• 2010

In the present study, unsteady calculations have been performed to simulate flows around a UH-60A full configuration including main rotor, fuselage, and tail rotor. A flow solver developed for helicopter aerodynamic analysis was used for the simulation of the complete helicopter in high-speed and low-speed forward flight. Unsteady vibratory loads on the main rotor blades were compared with flight test and other calculated data for the assessment of the present flow solver. Aerodynamic interaction of the three components of the helicopter was investigated by comparing with the results of main-rotor-alone, main rotor and fuselage, and tail-rotor-alone configurations. It was found that the existence of the fuselage has an effect on the normal force distribution of the main rotor by varying downwash distribution on the rotor disc, and tip vortices trailed from the main rotor strongly interact with the tail-rotor.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2010

Numerical simulation of unsteady flows around helicopters was conducted to investigate the aerodynamic interaction of main rotor and other components such as fuselage and tail rotor. For this purpose, a three-dimensional inviscid flow solver has been developed based on unstructured meshes. An overset mesh technique was used to describe the relative motion between the main rotor, and other components. As the application of the present method, calculations were made for the rotor-fuselage aerodynamic interaction of the ROBIN (ROtor Body INteraction) configuration and for a complete UH-60 helicopter configuration consisted of main rotor, fuselage, and tail rotor. Comparison of the computational results was made with measured time-averaged and instantaneous fuselage surface pressure distributions for the ROBIN configuration and thrust distribution and available experimental data for the UH-60 configuration. It is demonstrated that the present method is efficient and robust for the simulation of complete rotorcraft configurations.