Validation of Higher-Order Interactional Aerodynamics Simulations on Full Helicopter Configurations

Time-accurate numerical predictions of the interactional aerodynamics between NASA’s generic ROBIN fuselage and itsfour-bladed rotor were performed using the recently developed Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes solver HAMSTR. Two stencil-based reconstruction schemes (MUSCL, WENO), a second-order temporal accuracy, and the Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model were used. Three-dimensional volume meshes were created in a robust manner from two-dimensional unstructured surface grids using Hamiltonian paths and strands on nearbody domains. Grid connectivity was established between nearbody and background domains in an overset fashion. Two previously researched operational conditions were reproduced, i.e., a near-hover case and a medium-speed forward flight case at an advance ratio of 0.151. The results were compared with various experimental and numerical references and were found to be in good agreement with both. The comparison included the analysis of the rotor wake structure, tip-vortex trajectories, steady and dynamic fuselage pressure distributions in longitudinal and lateral directions, and rotor inflow predictions.     «

Time-accurate numerical predictions of the interactional aerodynamics between NASA’s generic ROBIN fuselage and itsfour-bladed rotor were performed using the recently developed Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes solver HAMSTR. Two stencil-based reconstruction schemes (MUSCL, WENO), a second-order temporal accuracy, and the Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model were used. Three-dimensional volume meshes were created in a robust manner from two-dimensional unstructured surface grids using Hamiltonian pat...     »