Aerodynamic Interaction between Rotor and Tilting Wing in Hovering Flight Condition

Abstract

The 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.