CFD simulation of helicopter rotor flow based on unsteady actuator disk model

Barakos, George N.; Fitzgibbon, Thomas A.; Kusyumov, A. N.; Kusyumov, S. A.; Mikhaǐlov, S. A.

doi:10.1016/j.cja.2020.03.021

Cited by 29 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The most common turbulence models that have been used to simulate the flow from a rotating propeller include the Spalart-Allmaras 33,49 , k − 23,31 , and k − ω 24,32,41,50 turbulence models. The Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model Although solving turbulent flows with RANS equations may be cheaper in terms of computational power and time consumption, the results from the calculations may be lacking in detail due to the averaging of the flow variables to solve the RANS equations.…”

Section: Numerical Methods and Schemesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are studies that proposed corrections to the BEM model so that the model can better predict the performance of propellers in conditions with low Reynolds number (of around 10 4 to 10 5 44 ) which is often the case for propellers of small UAS 45,46 . The BEM model has since been incorporated into CFD simulation in some studies to examine the flow from small UAS 47,48 as well as large helicopters 49,50 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Numerical studies on modeling the near- and far-field wake vortex of a quadrotor in forward flight

Nathanael

Wang

Low

2022

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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The operation of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) is expected to keep increasing in the future with its rapid advancement and ever-expanding applications. One of the safety measures that need to be put into place for safe UAS operations is separation requirements. This article presents the results from flow simulations of quadrotor propellers using the Overset method in ANSYS Fluent 19.2 and the Virtual Blade Model (VBM) method in OpenFOAM as part of ongoing work to establish a wake vortex–based safe separation distance for UAS operations. The near-field flow simulation using the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes turbulence model was validated with mesh convergence and turbulence model studies and verified with simulation and experimental data in the literature to ensure that the propeller simulation methods could generate a realistic near-field flow of multi-rotor UAS in forward flight. The far-field flow simulation using the Large Eddy Simulation turbulence model was validated with a mesh convergence study by calculating and comparing the circulation strength of the vortices in the far-field flow of each mesh setup but not verified due to a lack of existing experimental data.

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Section: Numerical Methods and Schemesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical studies on modeling the near- and far-field wake vortex of a quadrotor in forward flight

Nathanael

Wang

Low

2022

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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“…In the form of a perforated baffle, it has been used to simulate contact tanks for water treatment by Kizilaslan et al [20] or in refrigeration cabinets by Wang et al [21]. The same pressure-jump principle has also been used in the form of actuator disks for wind turbine rotors [22], tidal turbines [23], ship propellers [24] and helicopter rotors [25,26]. As a marine engineering application similar to the present case, Shim et al [2] have used a porous baffle to model current flow through and around a cylindrical fish net cage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bakica et al [24] investigated ship resistance with two phases, but the actuator-disk that represents the ship propeller was fully submerged in the water. Apart from applications to actuator disks [22,25,26] and for water treatment [20], steady-state solutions have been calculated in most previous examples.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Macro-Scale Porosity Implementations for CFD Modelling of Wave Interaction with Thin Porous Structures

Feichtner

Mackay

Tabor

et al. 2021

JMSE

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Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling of wave interaction with thin perforated structures is of interest in a range of engineering applications. When large-scale effects such as forces and the overall flow behaviour are of interest, a microstructural resolution of the perforated geometry can be excessive or prohibitive in terms of computational cost. More efficiently, a thin porous structure can be represented by its macro-scale effects by means of a quadratic momentum source or pressure-drop respectively. In the context of regular wave interaction with thin porous structures and within an incompressible, two-phase Navier–Stokes and volume-of-fluid framework (based on interFoam of OpenFOAM®), this work investigates porosity representation as a porous surface with a pressure-jump condition and as volumetric isotropic and anisotropic porous media. Potential differences between these three types of macro-scale porosity implementations are assessed in terms of qualitative flow visualizations, velocity profiles along the water column, the wave elevation near the structures and the horizontal force on the structures. The comparison shows that all three types of implementation are capable of reproducing large-scale effects of the wave-structure interaction and that the differences between all obtained results are relatively small. It was found that the isotropic porous media implementation is numerically the most stable and requires the shortest computation times. The pressure-jump implementation requires the smallest time steps for stability and thus the longest computation times. This is likely due to the spurious local velocities at the air-water interface as a result of the volume-of-fluid interface capturing method combined with interFoam’s segregated pressure-velocity coupling algorithm. This paper provides useful insights and recommendations for effective macro-scale modelling of thin porous structures.

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“…A mathematical modeling of the rotor is often conducted using the blade element theory (BEM) [19,20] and blade element momentum theory (BEMT) [21,22] which is a modification of the latter. Other methods such as actuator disks [23], a virtual blade model [24] or the Timoshenko beam theory are also used to account for aeroelastic effects [25]. An interesting study of transient loads and blade deformations on coaxial rotor systems using the coupled method (computational fluid dynamics and computational structural dynamics) is presented in [26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical calculations of the autorotating rotor under transient conditions

Czyż¹,

Kazimierska²,

Karpiński

et al. 2021

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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It is necessary to evaluate the performance of the main rotor in design stages of a rotorcraft to obtain the assumed lift force and low aerodynamic drag. This paper presents the CFD numerical analysis of the autorotating rotor under transient conditions. Auto-rotation is particularly important in the case of gyrocopters, while in the case of helicopters it is related to flight safety. The calculations allowed us to obtain aerodynamic forces and torque as a function of rotor azimuth for individual rotor blades. The analysis was performed for a rotor tilted by 15 degrees toward the airflow direction. A geometric model was created for the calculations and then a computational model was created in Ansys Fluent software. The k-ω SST model was adopted as the turbulence model which considers the turbulence kinetic energy and its unit dissipation. The obtained results are presented in a rotor and flow coordinate system.

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CFD simulation of helicopter rotor flow based on unsteady actuator disk model

Cited by 29 publications

References 18 publications

Numerical studies on modeling the near- and far-field wake vortex of a quadrotor in forward flight

Numerical studies on modeling the near- and far-field wake vortex of a quadrotor in forward flight

Comparison of Macro-Scale Porosity Implementations for CFD Modelling of Wave Interaction with Thin Porous Structures

Numerical calculations of the autorotating rotor under transient conditions

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