• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.52-62
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• 2009

A three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes solver, KFLOW, using overlapped grids has recently been developed to simulate unsteady flow phenomena over helicopter rotor blades. The blade-vortex interaction is predicted for a descending flight using measured blade deformation data. The effects of computational grid resolution and azimuth angle increments on airloads were examined, and computed airloads and vortex trajectories were compared with HART-II wind tunnel data. The current method predicts the BVI phenomena of blade airloads reasonably well. It is found from the present study that a peculiar distribution of vorticity of tip vortices in an approximate azimuth angle range of 90 to 180 degrees can be explained by physics of the shear-layer interaction as well as the dissipation of numerical schemes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.307-314
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• 2008

Loading noise generated by steady aerodynamic force exerted on the rotating body surface is theoretically analyzed and its radiation characteristics is examined as a fundamental research of helicopter rotor noise. For simplicity, the force exerted on each blade is not distributed but concentrated at one point and the noise is evaluated by using Lowson' exact formula with a discussion of the physical meaning of each term in the formula. For a single point force rotating with various angular frequencies, we investigated the radiation characteristics and theoretically explained the physical behavior at near and far-field. By investigating the amplitude of acoustic pressure with various distances, we observed the different decreasing ratio at near- and far-field with the discussion of the effect of acceleration of angular frequency. Finally, the phenomenon that the noise level is reduced everywhere as the number of blade increases is explained with the suggestion of a noise reduction idea, the limitations of this study, and the future research topics.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.1073-1079
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• 2009

The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method can identify principal modes that optimally capture the energy content from large multi-dimensional data set. In this study unsteady pressure fields on the rotor blade surface of a helicopter in forward flight are expressed by a reduced order model based on the POD method. Special modes containing high energy are analyzed to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics in more efficient way. The CFD simulation of flowfields around helicopter rotor blade in hovering motion is also conducted to validate its prediction with experimental result. In the process 7 modes containing energy ratio 99% from 240 snapshots information are identified and utilized to construct a reduced order model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.215-223
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• 2009

In this paper, the helicopter aerodynamics is simulated in hovering and forward flight. Also, an overlapped grid technique is applied in this simulation to consider the blade motion and moving effects. The Caradonna & Tung's rotor blade was selected to analyze the unsteady aerodynamics in hovering and non-lift forward flight. Also, the AH-1G rotor blade was selected in forward flight. In forward flight case, the numerical trim was applied to determine the cyclic pitching angles using Newton-Raphson method, and the numerical results were in good agreement with experimental data, especially, the BVI effects were well simulated in advancing side in comparison other numerical results. The governing equation is a three dimensional unsteady Euler equation, and the Riemann invariants condition is used for inflow and outflow at the boundary.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.181-186
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• 2009

The objective of this study is ensuring safety of cabin when the blade impacts into a obstacle by verifying safety of the rotor mast and the transmission using impact loads calculated from the simulation. The rotor mast shall not fail and the transmission shall not be displaced into occupiable space when the main rotor composite blade impact into a 8 inch rigid cylinder in diameter on the outer 10% of the blade at operational rotor speed. To calculate the reaction loads at the spherical bearing and lead-lag damper, blade impact analysis was performed with FE model consist of composite blade, tree(or rigid cylinder) using elastic-plastic with damage material and several contact surfaces which were created to describe a progress of actual failure. Also, the reaction loads were investigated in change of blade rotation speed and pitch angle.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.106-116
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• 2009

In order to investigate change of vortex structures and its evolving proceses, two dimensional LDV system was used for measurement of velocity vectors of tip vortex, and PIV system was also used for visualizations of tip vortex array for two bladed rotor, respectively. Experiments provided vortex locations, tangential and axial velocity components of tip vortex at six wake ages of 9.5, 10.5, 60.5, 99.5, 129.5, 169.5 and corresponded six wake ages shifted with 180 degrees per each. It was resulted that tip vortices generated by the first blade satisfy Landgrebe's model for their vortex locations even after they were accelerated by the second blade in downstream. Tangential velocity components of tip vortices follow Vatistas' n=2 model on both inside and outside regions of rotor slipstream without loss of vortex circulation. Axial velocity profiles revealed that there were small but significant perturbations just outside the primary vortex core which implies the second blade affects the wake substantially. It was also found that tip paths of each blade were not willing to be coincided intrinsically.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.311-318
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• 2020

This study investigates the performance and blade airloads for a rigid coaxial rotor of high-speed compound unmanned rotorcrafts. The present compound unmanned rotorcraft uses not only a rigid coaxial rotor, but also wings and propellers for high-speed flights. For the rigid coaxial rotor in this work, CAMRAD II, a rotorcraft comprehensive analysis code, is used to study the performance at a flight speed of up to 250 knots and blade section lift forces at 230 knots. As the flight speed increases, the rotor power decreases; however, the power of propellers increases to overcome the drag force of a rotorcraft in high-speed flight. The effective lift-to-drag ratio of a rotor has the maximum value of about 11.6 which is much higher than the value of the conventional helicopter. The blade section lift forces of the upper and lower rotors at 230 knots show the similar variation trends for one rotor revolution, and the impulses because of the aerodynamic interaction between both rotors are observed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.352-357
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• 2012

The ground resonance instability of a helicopter with bearingless main rotor hub were investigated. The ground resonance instability is caused by an interaction between the blade lag motion and hub inplane motion. This instability occurs when the helicopter is on the ground and is important for soft-inplane rotors where the rotating lag mode frequency is less than the rotor rotational speed. For the analysis, the bearingless rotor was composed of blades, flexbeam, torque tube, damper, shear restrainer, and pitch links. The fuselage was modeled as a mass-damper-spring system having natural frequencies in roll and pitch motions. The rotor-fuselage coupling equations are derived in non-rotating frame to consider the rotor and fuselage equations in the same frame. The ground resonance instabilities for three cases where are without lead-lag damper and fuselage damping, with lead-lag damper and without fuselage damping, and finally with lead-lag damper and fuselage damping. There is no ground resonance instability in the only rotor-fuselage configuration with lead-lag damper and fuselage damping.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.614-623
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• 2015

When the speed of a coaxial rotor helicopter in forward flight increases, the wake skew angle of the rotor increases and consequently the position of the vena contracta of the upper rotor with respect to the lower rotor changes. Considering ambient air and the effect of the upper rotor, this study proposes a nonuniform inflow model for the lower rotor of a coaxial rotor helicopter in forward flight. The total required power of the coaxial rotor system was compared against Dingeldein's experimental data, and the results of the proposed model were well matched. A plant model was also developed from first principles for flight simulation, unknown parameter estimation and control analysis. The coaxial rotor helicopter used for this study was manufactured for surveillance and reconnaissance and does not have any stabilizer bar. Therefore, a feedback controller was included during flight test and parameter estimation to overcome unstable situations. Predicted responses of parameter estimation and validation show good agreement with experimental data. Therefore, the methodology described in this paper can be used to develop numerical plant model, study non-uniform inflow model, conduct performance analysis and parameter estimation of coaxial rotor as well as other rotorcrafts in forward flight.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.31-38
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• 2009

In the present study, viscous flow calculations of helicopter main rotor system in forward flight were made by using an unstructured hybrid mesh solver. Each rotating blade relative to the cartesian frame was simulated independently by adopting unstructured overset mesh technique. For the validation of the present method, calculations for the Caradonna-Tung non-lifting forward flight and the AH-1G main rotor system in forward flight were made. Additional computation was made for the UH-60A rotor in forward flight. Reasonable agreements were obtained between the present results and the experiment.