Abstract
The impingement of rotor downwash on arid dusty terrain generates a dust cloud which can restrict pilot visibility in a phenomenon known as brownout. The magnitude and development of the dust cloud depends on parameters including rotorcraft geometry and configuration, terrain characteristics and flight profile, among others. This paper seeks to study the effect of forward flight speed and descent rate on the ground shear and dust cloud development for a rotorcraft with and without fuselage. The transition from OGE (Out of Ground Effect) into IGE (In Ground Effect) for a descending rotorcraft is captured using a body attached overset grid. The Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations govern the unsteady, turbulent flow where the Realizable k − e model is used for closure. The individual rotor blades are modeled via time accurate momentum sources. An Eulerian based dust transport equation is solved to compute the dust cloud density. The SIMPLER algorithm extended to moving grids is employed to solve the governing equations. Results suggest the influence of the fuselage has a significant effect on the resulting dust cloud development and distribution and must be considered when simulating rotorcraft brownout.
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