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Aerodynamic Blade Design with Multi-Objective Optimization for a Tiltrotor Aircraft
Full text linkPurpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the aerodynamic blade design of a tiltwing aircraft with a multi-objective optimization procedure. The aerodynamic design of tiltrotor blades is a very challenging task in the project of this type of aircraft. Design/methodology/approach - Tiltrotor blades have to give good performance both in helicopter and aeroplane modes. According to the design parameters (the chords, the twists and the airfoils along the blade), as the optimization objectives are different from one operating condition to another, the blade is the result of a multi-objective constrained optimization based on a controlled elitist genetic algorithm founded on the NSGA-II algorithm. The optimization process uses a BEMT solver to compute rotor performance. To avoid negative effects due to compressibility losses in aeroplane mode, the blade shape has been refined following the normal Mach number criterion. Findings - It has been found that the optimized rotor blade gives good performance both in terms of figure of merit and propulsive efficiency if compared with experimental data of existing rotor (ERICA tiltrotor) and propeller (NACA high-speed propeller). Practical implications - The optimization procedure described in this paper for the design of tiltrotor blades can be efficiently used for the aerodynamic design of helicopter rotors and aircraft propellers of all typology. Originality/value - In this work, advanced methodologies have been used for the aerodynamics design of a proprotor optimized for an aircraft which belongs to the innovative typology of high-performance tiltwing tiltrotor aircraft
Prediction of Aerodynamic Propeller/Wing Interaction with a Panel Code Using Embedded Actuator Disk Model
No full textAssessment of a Propeller Model Embedded on a Panel Method Code for Aircraft Aerodynamics
No full textAn inviscid actuator disk model is embedded in a three-dimensional low-order panel method code for inviscid incompressible ow in order to study the propeller effects on an arbitrary body. The actuator disk model predicts the time-averaged induced velocities in the slipstream of a propeller with an arbitrary radial distribution of load. The model is constructed by superposition of four vorticity distributions, by neglecting the radial contraction of the vortex tube and assuming a fixed wake for the propeller. Experimental data, available from the licterature, have been used to validate the actuator disk model embedded in the panel method code
Aerodynamic Shape Optimisation of a Proprotor and Its Validation by Means of CFD and Experiments
Get PDFThe aerodynamic shape design of a proprotor for a tiltrotor aircraft is a very complex and demanding task because it has to combine good hovering capabilities with high propeller efficiency. The aim of the present work is to describe a two-level procedure and its results for the aerodynamic shape design of a new rotor blade for a high-performance tiltwing tiltrotor aircraft taking into account the most important flight conditions in which the aircraft can operate. Span-wise distributions of twist, chord and aerofoil were chosen making use of a multi-objective genetic optimiser that worked on three objectives simultaneously. A non-linear sweep angle distribution along the blade was designed to reduce the power losses due to compressibility effects during axial flight at high speed. During the optimisation process, the aerodynamic performance of the blade was evaluated with a classical two-dimensional strip theory solver. The optimised blade was than analysed by means of a compressible Navier-Stokes solver and calculations were validated comparing numerical results with experimental data obtained from wind-tunnel tests of a scaled model of the proprotor
Perpendicular blade–vortex-interaction over an oscillating airfoil in light dynamic stall
Full text linkAn experimental and numerical study was performed to investigate the effects of perpendicular blade vortex interactions on the aerodynamic performance of an oscillating airfoil. The selected test cases studied the aerodynamic interaction of a stream-wise vortex impacting on a NACA 23012 airfoil oscillating in light dynamic stall regime, representing a typical condition of the retreating blade of a helicopter in forward flight. The analysis of particle image velocimetry surveys and time-accurate simulation results enabled to point out the different effects due to the blade pitching motion on the interacting flow field. Thus, numerical results enabled to achieve a detailed insight about the aerodynamic loads acting on the oscillating airfoil in the interacting cases. In particular, the comparison with the clean airfoil case shows that a severe loss of performance is produced by the interaction of the vortex during the airfoil downstroke motion, as the vortex impact triggers the local stall of the blade section
Aerodynamic Interaction Between Rotor and Tilting Wing in Hovering Flight Condition
Full text linkThe hovering performance and the lifting capability of tiltrotor aircraft are strongly affected by the aerodynamic interaction between wing and rotors. The tiltwing concept represents an interesting technology to increase the hover performance by reducing the wing–rotor interference. The present work investigates the aerodynamic interaction between wing and rotor in hover for a scaled tiltwing aircraft half-span model. A comprehensive experimental campaign, including force measurements and particle image velocimetry surveys, was performed together with computational fluid dynamics simulations. Numerical predictions were validated using experimental data and were used to describe the flow field
Mid-fidelity approach to aerodynamic simulations of unconventional VTOL aircraft configurations
Full text linkA new flexible medium-fidelity open source computational tool was developed with the purpose of obtaining fast and reliable aerodynamic simulations of unconventional Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft configurations, such as the emerging category of eVTOLs. This tool, called DUST, ensures quick simulations and provides reasonably accurate results when the need for numerous evaluations rules out an extensive use of CFD due to its high computational cost, while maintaining robustness in the complex interactional aerodynamic phenomena typical of the novel eVTOL configurations. The paper first presents the analytical formulation of the tool, based on different potential boundary elements and vortex particles wake integrated in a common formulation. Then, the results obtained with the novel code are compared with experimental data and CFD results of a half-span tiltwing tiltrotor model and an eVTOL multi-rotor tiltwing aircraft, both in hover and forward flight mode. The comparisons show that DUST produces results that are as accurate as the results obtained with CFD, except for massively separated conditions, at a computational cost orders of magnitude lower. The results highlight the effectiveness of this approach for the preliminary design of a vehicle and for the preliminary study of the flow physics related to the aerodynamic interactions between rotor wakes and solid bodies as wings
Unsteady Actuating Blade Model for CFD/CSD Analysis of a Tiltrotor
No full textThe paper presents an effective method to evaluate the unsteady flow field around a rotor through a Computational Fluid Dynamics model based on the actuator blade approach. The actuator blade extends the classical actuator disk model without the necessity to perform time or azimuth averaging operations. In this way, a time accurate investigation of the influence of the rotor wake on the rotor itself and on other non-rotating parts (fuselage, wings) can be performed. The method exploits the overset grid technique to allow an easy identification of the location of the sources distributed in the flow field to enforce the correct blade loads. The kinematics and the dynamics of the rotating parts is computed thought the coupling with a multibody solver and transmitted to the CFD as movement of the independent surface grids associated with each actuator blade. This allows to keep into account both rigid and elastic movements, including those related to movable surfaces. A comparison with experimental results obtained for a four blade tiltrotor are shown to verify the quality of the prediction of the flow field. Additionally, a comparison with the results obtained through a classical actuator disk allows to quantify the effects of the employment of the time-accurate approach with respect to the time-averaged results of the actuator disk model
Experimental investigation of a helicopter rotor with Gurney flaps
Get PDFThe present work describes an experimental activity carried out to investigate the performance of Gurney flaps on a helicopter rotor model in hovering. The four blades of the articulated rotor model were equipped with Gurney flaps positioned at 95% of the aerofoil chord, spanning 14% of the rotor radius. The global aerodynamic loads and torque were measured for three Gurney flap configurations characterised by different heights. The global measurements showed an apparent benefit produced by Gurney flaps in terms of rotor performance with respect to the clean blade configuration. Particle image velocimetry surveys were also performed on the blade section at 65% of the rotor radius with and without the Gurney flaps. The local velocity data was used to complete the characterisation of the blade aerodynamic performance through the evaluation of the sectional aerodynamic loads using the the control volume approach
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