Helicopter response to atmospheric turbulence

Abstract

A new time-domain method for simulating cyclostationary turbulence as seen by a translating and rotating blade element has recently been developed for the case of one-dimensional spectral distribution. This paper extends the simulation method to the cases of two- and three-dimensional spectral distributions and presents validation results for the two-dimensional case. The statistics of an isolated rigid blade flapping response to turbulence are computed using a two-dimensional spectral representation of the von Karman turbulence model, and the results are compared with those obtained using the conventional space-fixed turbulence analysis. The new turbulence simulation method is used for predicting the Black Hawk helicopter response to atmospheric turbulence.