Rotorcraft comprehensive code assessment for blade–vortex interaction conditions

Abstract

The scope of this paper is the presentation of the computational methodologies applied in the comprehensive code for rotorcraft developed in the last years at Roma Tre University, along with the assessment of its prediction capabilities focused on flight conditions characterized by strong blade–vortex interactions. Boundary element method approaches are applied for both potential aerodynamics and aeroacoustics solutions, whereas a harmonic-balance/modal approach is used to integrate the rotor aeroelastic equations. The validation campaign of the comprehensive code has been carried out against the well-known HART II database, which is the outcome of a joint multi-national effort aimed at performing wind tunnel measurements of loads, blade deflection, wake shape and noise concerning a four-bladed model rotor in low-speed descent flight. Comparisons with numerical simulations available in the literature for the same test cases are also presented. It is shown that, with limited computational cost, the results provided by the Roma Tre aero-acousto-elastic solver are in good agreement with the experimental data, with a level of accuracy that is in line with the state-of-the-art predictions. The influence of the vortex core modeling on aerodynamic predictions and the influence of the inclusion of the fuselage shielding effect on aeroacoustic predictions are discussed.