A coupling VWM/CFD/CSD method for rotor airload prediction

A coupling fluid-structure method with a combination of viscous wake model (VWM), computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and comprehensive structural dynamics (CSD) modules is developed in this paper for rotor unsteady airload prediction. The hybrid VWM/CFD solver is employed to model the nonlinear aerodynamic phenomena and complicated rotor wake dynamics; the moderate deflection beam theory is implemented to predict the blade structural deformation; the loose coupling strategy based on the 'delt method' is used to couple the fluid and structure solvers. Several cases of Helishape 7A rotor are performed first to investigate the effect of elastic deformation on airloads. Then, two challenging forward flight conditions of UH-60A helicopter rotor are investigated, and the simulated results of wake geometry, chordwise pressure distribution and sectional normal force show excellent agreement with available test data; a comparison with traditional CFD/CSD method is also presented to illustrate the efficiency of the developed method. (C) 2016 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.