Helicopter flight simulation based on URANS solver and virtual blade model

The methodology of simulation of a rotorcraft flight has been developed and applied to simulate several stages of flight of light helicopter. The methodology is based on coupling of several computational models of Computational Fluid Dynamics, Flight Dynamic. The essence of the methodology consists in calculation of aerodynamic forces acting on the flying rotorcraft by solving during the simulation the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations. In this approach, the rotorcraft is flying inside the computational 3D mesh modelling the space filled with the air. The flight simulation procedure is completely embedded in the URANS solver ANSYS FLUENT. Flow effects caused by rotating blades of main or tail rotor are modelled by application of the developed Virtual Blade Model (VBM). In this approach, real rotors are replaced by volume discs influencing the flow field similarly as rotating blades. Time-averaged aerodynamic effects of rotating blades are modelled using momentum source terms placed inside the volume-disc zones. The momentum sources are evaluated based on the Blade Element Theory,which associateslocal flow parameters in the blade sections with databases of 2D-aerodynamic characteristics of these sections. Apart of the VBM module, two additional UDF modules support the simulation of helicopter flight: the module responsible for modelling of all kinematic aspects of the flight and the module gathering the momentary aerodynamic loads and solves 6 DOFEquations describing a motion of the helicopter seen as solid body. Exemplary simulation of helicopter flight, starting from a hover, through an acceleration and fast flight until a deceleration and steep descent, has been discussed.