Computation of GOAHEAD configuration with Chimera assembly

In the framework of the GOAHEAD European project, CFD simulations around a complete helicopter configuration have been performed by the different partners to validate their codes and to compare with a detailed experimental database. At ONERA, the simulation of such a complex configuration is still challenging in terms of efforts required in the pre-processing phase, and in terms of CPU time. This test-case has been in particular used to set up a pre-processing chain of tools, going from the meshes described in a CGNS tree to the calculation input. This chain including the Chimera assembly of the different components of the helicopter is described in this paper. The second part presents some results of one of the test-cases performed by ONERA in the project: the cruise/tail shake flight condition. The results are compared with the experiment data and also with pre-tests CFD computations. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.