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At least 55 records · Page 3

Airloads and Wake Geometry Calculations for an Isolated Tiltrotor Model in a Wind Tunnel

Comparisons of measured and calculated aerodynamic behavior of a tiltrotor model are presented. The test of the Tilt Rotor Aeroacoustic Model (TRAM) with a single, 0.25-scale V-22 rotor in the German-Dutch Wind Tunnel (DNW) provides an extensive set of aeroacoustic, performance, and structural loads data. The calculations were performed using the rotorcraft comprehensive analysis CAMRAD II. Presented are comparisons of measured and calculated performance for hover and helicopter mode operation, and airloads for helicopter mode. Calculated induced power, profile power, and wake geometry provide additional information about the aerodynamic behavior. An aerodynamic and wake model and calculation procedure that reflects the unique geometry and phenomena of tiltrotors has been developed. There are major differences between this model and the corresponding aerodynamic and wake model that has been established for helicopter rotors. In general, good correlation between measured and calculated performance and airloads behavior has been shown. Two aspects of the analysis that clearly need improvement are the stall delay model and the trailed vortex formation model.

Johnson, Wayne↗

Computation of UH-60A Airloads Using CFD/CSD Coupling on Unstructured Meshes

An unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver for unstructured grids is used to compute the rotor airloads on the UH-60A helicopter at high-speed and high thrust conditions. The flow solver is coupled to a rotorcraft comprehensive code in order to account for trim and aeroelastic deflections. Simulations are performed both with and without the fuselage, and the effects of grid resolution, temporal resolution and turbulence model are examined. Computed airloads are compared to flight data.

Biedron, Robert T.↗

Correlating CFD Simulation with Wind Tunnel Test for the Full-Scale UH-60A Airloads Rotor

Data from the recent UH-60A Airloads Test in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex 40- by 80- Foot Wind Tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center are presented and compared to predictions computed by a loosely coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)/Comprehensive analysis. Primary calculations model the rotor in free-air, but initial calculations are presented including a model of the tunnel test section. The conditions studied include a speed sweep at constant lift up to an advance ratio of 0.4 and a thrust sweep at constant speed into deep stall. Predictions show reasonable agreement with measurement for integrated performance indicators such as power and propulsive but occasionally deviate significantly. Detailed analysis of sectional airloads reveals good correlation in overall trends for normal force and pitching moment but pitching moment mean often differs. Chord force is frequently plagued by mean shifts and an overprediction of drag on the advancing side. Locations of significant aerodynamic phenomena are predicted accurately although the magnitude of individual events is often missed.

Romandr, Ethan↗

An Examination of Unsteady Airloads on a UH-60A Rotor: Computation Versus Measurement

An unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver for unstructured grids is used to simulate the flow over a UH-60A rotor. Traditionally, the computed pressure and shear stresses are integrated on the computational mesh at selected radial stations and compared to measured airloads. However, the corresponding integration of experimental data uses only the pressure contribution, and the set of integration points (pressure taps) is modest compared to the computational mesh resolution. This paper examines the difference between the traditional integration of computed airloads and an integration consistent with that used for the experimental data. In addition, a comparison of chordwise pressure distributions between computation and measurement is made. Examination of this unsteady pressure data provides new opportunities to understand differences between computation and flight measurement.

Biedron, Robert T.↗

Loads Correlation of a Full-Scale UH-60A Airloads Rotor in a Wind Tunnel

Wind tunnel measurements of the rotor trim, blade airloads, and structural loads of a full-scale UH-60A Black Hawk main rotor are compared with calculations obtained using the comprehensive rotorcraft analysis CAMRAD II and a coupled CAMRAD II/OVERFLOW 2 analysis. A speed sweep at constant lift up to an advance ratio of 0.4 and a thrust sweep at constant speed into deep stall are investigated. The coupled analysis shows significant improvement over comprehensive analysis. Normal force phase is better captured and pitching moment magnitudes are better predicted including the magnitude and phase of the two stall events in the fourth quadrant at the deeply stalled condition. Structural loads are, in general, improved with the coupled analysis, but the magnitude of chord bending moment is still significantly underpredicted. As there are three modes around 4 and 5/rev frequencies, the structural responses to the 5/rev airloads due to dynamic stall are magnified and thus care must be taken in the analysis of the deeply stalled condition.

Yeo, Hyeonsoo↗

Coupled CFD/CSD Computation of Airloads of an Active-Twist Rotor

An unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes analysis loosely coupled with a comprehensive rotorcraft code for blade trim and aeroelastic effects is presented for a second-generation Active-Twist Rotor. Mesh and temporal sensitives of computed airloads are evaluated. In the final paper, computed airloads will be compared with wind tunnel data for the Active-Twist Rotor test that is currently underway.

Massey, Steven J.↗

UH-60A Airloads Flight Test Program: Data Counter 8534

During the period between July 1993 and February 1994 the data collection portion of the UH-60A Airloads Program was conducted. At the time, UH-60A Airloads Program was the most comprehensive and data rich rotorcraft flight test program that NASA and the Army had ever attempted. It was part of the Modern Technology Rotor Program, where several different rotors were to be tested in small and full-scale wind tunnels combined with flight testing. This would allow for comparison between the various tests and comprehensive analyses. Results were to be stored in a comprehensive, easily accessed, database know as Tilt Rotor Engineering Database System, TRENDS. With over 30 years of rotor testing experience, the goal of NASA and the Army was to collect a wide and extensive amount of data to improve the understanding of rotors and prediction codes.

Kufeld, Robert M.↗

Blade Motion Correlation for the Full-Scale UH-60A Airloads Rotor

Testing was successfully completed in May 2010 on a full-scale UH-60A rotor system in the USAF's National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) 40- by 80-Foot Wind Tunnel.[1] The primary objective of this NASA Army sponsored test program was to acquire a comprehensive set of validation-quality measurements ona full-scale pressure-instrumented rotor system at conditions that challenge the most sophisticated modeling andsimulation tools. The test hardware included the same rotor blades used during the UH-60A Airloads flight test.[2] Key measurements included rotor performance, blade loads, blade pressures, blade displacements, and rotorwake measurements using large-field Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Retro-reflective Background Oriented Schlieren (RBOS).

Airloads Rotor↗

UH-60A Airloads Catalog

As a part of the NASA-Army UH-60A Airloads Program, instrumented rotor blades were designed and built for the UH-60A helicopter that included 241 pressure transducers on one blade and a suite of strain gauges and accelerometers on a second blade. These blades were then installed on a UH-60A at NASA Ames Research Center and a special purpose data acquisition system was designed and built to acquire the rotating system measurements. The aircraft was also instrumented with conventional aircraft state measurements as well as a suite of fuselage accelerometers. Test flights of the highly-instrumented UH-60A were flown from August 1993 to February 1994 and an extensive data base was acquired. A total of 31 research flights were made with the majority of the flights flown out of Moffett Field, California. The test data, in general, were acquired in isolated airspace over the San Joaquin Valley. An exception to this procedure is that nine flights were made in cooperation with NASA Langley Research Center, and for these tests the aircraft was flown out of the Modesto airport and the data were acquired at the Crows Landing Naval Auxiliary Air Field, also within the San Joaquin Valley. Over 900 different test conditions, or counters, were recorded, processed, and stored in an electronic data base as a part of this test program. The electronic data base, currently at NASA Ames Research Center, includes approximately 30 GBytes of data obtained from the test program. This Technical Memorandum summarizes the kinds of data that are in the data base to assist interested users. Each set of test conditions is presented in a table which contains a unique identifying number that is termed the counter number, the written description of the counter that is within the database, and the duration of the counter in seconds. Within each table the counters are listed in chronological order, and in some cases counters may be included within two or more tables if they meet different criteria.

UH-60A↗

Theory/test correlation of helicopter rotor blade element airloads in the blade stall regime

The effects of stall on a rotor blade element in a three-dimensional rotating environment was investigated. The model rotor test provided blade element airloads and local boundary layer flow characteristics at the three-quarter blade radius position for a wide range of rotor operating conditions. A description of the test program and the test results are presented.

Bobo, C. J.↗

Prediction of unsteady airloads for oblique blade-gust interaction in compressible flow

The techniques of Galilean-Lorentz transformation and matched asymptotic expansions are used to simplify the procedure of calculating the lift and pressure distribution induced on an infinite-span thin wing interacting with an oblique sinusoidal gust in subsonic flow. This technique requires that the product of the flow Mach number and the reduced frequency be small. Under this condition, the inner region of the transformed space behaves as an incompressible flow, so that existing incompressible flow theories can be used as a basis to construct closed-form solutions for the airload induced on the wing. This approach is an extension of the GASP approximation developed by Amiet and Sears (1970). Results are obtained for both the magnitude and the phase of the unsteady lift due to interaction with gust. These results are compared with available numerical results. Some discrepancies are noted and discussed.

Chu, S.↗

Investigation of rotor blade element airloads for a teetering rotor in the blade stall regime

A model of a teetering rotor was tested in a low speed wind tunnel. Blade element airloads measured on an articulated model rotor were compared with the teetering rotor and showed that the teetering rotor is subjected to less extensive flow separation. Retreating blade stall was studied. Results show that stall, under the influence of unsteady aerodynamic effects, consists of four separate stall events, each associated with a vortex shed from the leading edge and sweeping over the upper surface of the rotor blade. Current rotor performance prediction methodology was evaluated through computer simulation.

Dadone, L. U.↗

Unsteady two dimensional airloads acting on oscillating thin airfoils in subsonic ventilated wind tunnels

The numerical calculation of unsteady two dimensional airloads which act upon thin airfoils in subsonic ventilated wind tunnels was studied. Neglecting certain quadrature errors, Bland's collocation method is rigorously proved to converge to the mathematically exact solution of Bland's integral equation, and a three way equivalence was established between collocation, Galerkin's method and least squares whenever the collocation points are chosen to be the nodes of the quadrature rule used for Galerkin's method. A computer program displayed convergence with respect to the number of pressure basis functions employed, and agreement with known special cases was demonstrated. Results are obtained for the combined effects of wind tunnel wall ventilation and wind tunnel depth to airfoil chord ratio, and for acoustic resonance between the airfoil and wind tunnel walls. A boundary condition is proposed for permeable walls through which mass flow rate is proportional to pressure jump.

Fromme, J.↗

Comparison of theoretical predictions of orbiter airloads with wind tunnel and flight test results for a Mach number of 0.52

The measurement and prediction of wing airloads for space shuttle orbiter 101 during approach and landing tests is discussed. Strain gage instrumentation, calibration, and flight data processing are covered along with wind tunnel and simulator results. The generation of theoretical predictions using the FLEXSTAB computer program is described, and the results are compared to experimental measurements.

Carter, A. L.↗

A new capability for elastic aircraft airloads via NASTRAN

A new direct matrix abstract program for NASTRAN written to calculate internal stresses and airloads for a flexible wing is described. The difficulties encountered in interfacing the doublet lattice solution to the aerodynamic problem to the finite element solution to the structural problem are discussed. A brief numerical example is included.

Briggs, H. C.↗