Prediction of time-dependent fuselage pressures in the wake of a helicopter rotor
A method is described for the analysis of the unsteady, incompressible potential flow associated with a helicopter. The fuselage, rotor, and rotor wake are considered together in forward flight. This method is particularly useful in low advance ratio flight due to the contribution of the deformed wake to the airloads imposed on the fuselage. The rotor geometry is prescribed and the unsteady wake geometry is computed from the local flow perturbation velocities. The fuselage is modeled as a non-lifting body of source panels and the rotor and its wake are modeled as a full vortex lattice. The rotor geometry is arbitrary and several rotor blades can be represented. The unsteady airloads are computed in the presence of the deformed rotor wake by a time-stepping technique. The wake is started impulsively from rest, allowing a natural convection of the wake with time.