BOS-Based Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Rotor Blade Tip Vortex Positions

Abstract

The present work discusses a methodology to reconstruct three-dimensional positions of rotor blade tip vortices based on stereoscopic background-oriented schlieren data. The reconstruction procedure is first applied on a rotor test stand where a comparison with previous PIV measurements is performed to validate the reconstruction scheme. Subsequently, it is adapted for the reconstruction of the vortex system surrounding a model helicopter in free flight during an unsteady takeoff maneuver.