Engineering topics

McFarland, R. E.

Publications and source records attributed to McFarland, R. E..

3 records

NASA NTRS1999

System and Method for Finite Element Simulation of Helicopter Turbulence

The present invention provides a turbulence model that has been developed for blade-element helicopter simulation. This model uses an innovative temporal and geometrical distribution algorithm that preserves the statistical characteristics of the turbulence spectra over the rotor disc, while providing velocity components in real time to each of five blade-element stations along each of four blades. for a total of twenty blade-element stations. The simulator system includes a software implementation of flight dynamics that adheres to the guidelines for turbulence set forth in military specifications. One of the features of the present simulator system is that it applies simulated turbulence to the rotor blades of the helicopter, rather than to its center of gravity. The simulator system accurately models the rotor penetration into a gust field. It includes time correlation between the front and rear of the main rotor, as well as between the side forces felt at the center of gravity and at the tail rotor. It also includes features for added realism, such as patchy turbulence and vertical gusts in to which the rotor disc penetrates. These features are realized by a unique real time implementation of the turbulence filters. The new simulator system uses two arrays one on either side of the main rotor to record the turbulence field and to produce time-correlation from the front to the rear of the rotor disc. The use of Gaussian Interpolation between the two arrays maintains the statistical properties of the turbulence across the rotor disc. The present simulator system and method may be used in future and existing real-time helicopter simulations with minimal increase in computational workload.

McFarland, R. E.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Finite Element Aircraft Simulation of Turbulence

A turbulence model has been developed for realtime aircraft simulation that accommodates stochastic turbulence and distributed discrete gusts as a function of the terrain. This model is applicable to conventional aircraft, V/STOL aircraft, and disc rotor model helicopter simulations. Vehicle angular activity in response to turbulence is computed from geometrical and temporal relationships rather than by using the conventional continuum approximations that assume uniform gust immersion and low frequency responses. By using techniques similar to those recently developed for blade-element rotor models, the angular-rate filters of conventional turbulence models are not required. The model produces rotational rates as well as air mass translational velocities in response to both stochastic and deterministic disturbances, where the discrete gusts and turbulence magnitudes may be correlated with significant terrain features or ship models. Assuming isotropy, a two-dimensional vertical turbulence field is created. A novel Gaussian interpolation technique is used to distribute vertical turbulence on the wing span or lateral rotor disc, and this distribution is used to compute roll responses. Air mass velocities are applied at significant centers of pressure in the computation of the aircraft's pitch and roll responses.

McFarland, R. E.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Simulation of Rotor Blade Element Turbulence

A turbulence model has been developed for blade-element helicopter simulation. This model, called Simulation of Rotor Blade Element Turbulence (SORBET), uses an innovative temporal and geometrical distribution algorithm that preserves the statistical characteristics of the turbulence spectra over the rotor disc, while providing velocity components in real time to each of five blade-element stations along each of four blades. An initial investigation of SORBET has been performed using a piloted, motion-based simulation of the Sikorsky UH60A Black Hawk. Although only the vertical component of stochastic turbulence was used in this investigation, vertical turbulence components induce vehicle responses in all translational and rotational degrees of freedom of the helicopter. The single-degree-of-freedom configuration of SORBET was compared to a conventional full 6-degrees-of-freedom baseline configuration, where translational velocity inputs are superimposed at the vehicle center of gravity, and rotational velocity inputs are created from filters that approximate the immersion rate into the turbulent field. For high-speed flight the vehicle responses were satisfactory for both models. Test pilots could not distinguish differences between the baseline configuration and SORBET. In low-speed flight the baseline configuration received criticism for its high frequency content, whereas the SORBET model elicited favorable pilot opinion. For this helicopter, which has fully articulated blades, results from SORBET show that vehicle responses to turbulent blade-station disturbances are severely attenuated. This is corroborated by in-flight observation of the rotor tip path plane as compared to vehicle responses.

McFarland, R. E.↗