Chang-Jeon Hwang

Numerical Investigation on a Rotor Tip-Vortex Instability in Very Low Advance Ratio Flight

Helical tip vortex is known as stable vortex structure, however the specific frequency component of far wake perturbation induces the vortex pairing in hover and axial flight. It is expected that the tip vortex pairing phenomena may happen in transition flight and very low advance ratio flight so that inflow may be most nonuniform in the low advance ratio flight. The objectives of this paper are that a tip-vortex instability during the transition from hover into very low advance ratio forward flight is numerically predicted to understand a physics by using a time-marching free-wake method. To achieve the objectives, numerical method is firstly validated in typical axial and forward flights cases. Present scheme with trim routine can predict airloads and inflow distribution of forward flight with good accuracy. Then, the transition flight condition is calculated. The rotor used in this wake calculation is a small-scale AH-1G model. By using a tip-vortex trajectory tracking method, the tip-vortex pairing process are clearly observed in transient flight(μ=0.03) and disappears at a slightly higher advance ratio(μ=0.05). According to the steady flight simulation at μ=0.03, it is confirmed the tip-vortex pairing process is continued in the rear part of rotor disk and not occurs in the front part. Time averaged inflow in this case is predicted as smooth distribution.

Conceptual Design of a Ducted Fan for Helicopter Anti-Torque System

Ducted fans have advantages in noise as well as operational safety aspects compared to conventional tail rotors and are used as an anti-torque system for various classes of helicopters. The final goal of this study is to develop a ducted fan anti-torque system which can replace conventional tail rotors of existing helicopters to achieve safety enhancement and low noise level. In this paper, a conceptual design process and the results are described. Initially, the design requirement and the design parameter characteristics are analysed, and then initial sizing and configuration design are performed. There are several configuration changes due to specific technical reasons in each case. Finally, the required power and the pitch link load are predicted as an initial estimation. The conceptual design technique for the ducted fan in this study can be easily applied to the design of other ducted fans such as the lift fan for unmanned aerial vehicle.

Time accurate finite difference method for performance prediction of a silencer with mean flow and nonlinear incident wave

Transmission losses of various reactive silencers are predicted, using a time accurate finite difference method. The numerical scheme is the 3rd order upwind scheme for axisymmetric Euler equations. Main advantage of the present method is that it can simulate linear and nonlinear wave propagation phenomena in a flow field directly with minimum numerical oscillation errors. The special treatments of incident wave condition, i.e. multiple harmonics of the transparent acoustic condition are applied to the transmission loss prediction for calculation efficiency. For the validation of the present approach, circular expansion chamber silencers without mean flow and an exponential pipe with mean flow are simulated in case of linear incident wave. The computed transmission losses have quite good agreements with those of the others. The nonlinear incident wave case is also investigated to check the usefulness of this method. The periodicN wave is clearly captured without numerical oscillation errors, and the insertion losses of two different incident frequencies are compared.

Transparent acoustic source condition applied to the Euler equations

It can be concluded from the present calculations that the transparent source model proposed here is useful to numerically simulate an acoustic source in the computational domain that is located far downstream. Thus, it is possible to simulate a complex acoustic problem, such as the reflection and transmission of an incident wave

Analysis and Trend Curve Derivation of Major Design Parameters of Unmanned and Manned Rotorcrafts

Design parameters of manned and unmanned rotorcrafts have been investigated to construct a design database and to derive trend curves. Design parameters of 78 manned rotorcrafts and 33 unmanned rotorcrafts have been collected and analyzed using linear regression method. Six kinds of trend curves equations are derived. Most of trend curves derived are relatively meaningful according to the calculated correlation and determination coefficients. The comparisons between manned and unmanned rotorcraft characteristics are performed. It has been drawn according to the comparisons that unmanned rotorcraft has smaller main rotor diameter and maximum take-off weight, bigger tail rotor size and similar level of empty weight fraction than manned rotorcraft.

The Analysis of Helicopter Maneuvering Flight Using the Indirect Method - Part II. Applicability of High Fidelity Helicopter Models

This paper deals with the nonlinear optimal control approach to helicopter maneuver problems using the indirect method. We apply a penalty function to the integral deviation from a prescribed trajectory to convert the system optimality to an unconstrained optimal control problem. The resultant two-point boundary value problem has been solved by using a multiple-shooting method. This paper focuses on the model selection strategies to resolve the problem of numerical instability and high wait time when a high fidelity model with rotor dynamics is applied. Four different types of helicopter models are identified, two of which are linear models with or without rotor models, as well as two models which include the nonlinear mathematical model for rotor in its formulation. The relative computation time and the number of function calls for each model are compared in order to provide a guideline for the selection of helicopter model.

Analysis of Helicopter Maneuvering Flight Using the Indirect Method - Part I. Optimal Control Formulation and Numerical Methods

This paper deals with the nonlinear optimal control approach to helicopter maneuver problems using the indirect method. We apply a penalty function to the deviation from a prescribed trajectory to convert the system optimality to an unconstrained optimal control problem. The resultant two-point boundary value problem has been solved by using the multiple-shooting method. This paper focuses on the effect of the number of shooting nodes and initialization methods on the numerical solution in order to define the minimum number of shooting nodes required for numerical convergence and to provide a method increasing convergence radius of the indirect method. The results of this study can provide an approach to improve numerical stability and convergence of the indirect method when we solve the optimal control problems of an inherently unstable helicopter system.

Investigation on Prediction Methods for a Rotor Averaged Inflow in Forward Flight

Prediction methods for a rotor averaged inflow in forward flight are investigated in this study. The investigated methods are Drees linear inflow model, Mangler & Squire model and free vortex wake(FVW) method. Predictions have been performed for a four-blade rotor operating at three different advance ratios i.e. 0.15, 0.23 and 0.30, at which experimental data are available. According to results, Drees model has a limitation for the inflow non-uniformity prediction due to an inherent linear characteristics. Mangler & Squire model has a reasonable accuracy except the disk edge region. KARI FVW method has very good accuracy and has better accuracy than the other FVW method especially in inboard region. However, there are some discrepancies in retreating side due to the dynamic stall effect and in near hub region due to the fuselage upwash effect.

Numerical Predictions of Rotor Performance using a Navier-Stokes Simulation coupled with a Time-Marching Free-Wake Model

CFD method has been coupled with a time-marching free-wake model by using field velocity approach suggested by J. D. Baeder (Ref. 1). The coupled method has been applied to rectangular and BERP-like blades and the calculated performance data are compared with the experimental results. For hovering analysis, the present method could yield sufficiently good results with reasonable computation time and is particularly suitable for the flow field analysis with the complex shaped blade.