Numerical simulation of helicopter multi-bladed rotor flow

Abstract

A numerical method for solving the Euler equations for multiblade rotors has been developed. The computed results, including one nonlifting forward-flight and several lifting hovering cases, are compared with experimental data. For forward-flight case, the unsteady growth and decay of the shock agree well with experimental results. For hovering case, at low and moderate transonic tip speed, the results show good agreement with experimental data in the tip region. The near-wake effects can be captured without wake modeling.