NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF MODEL HELICOPTER ROTOR IN HOVER

Abstract

The article presents details of a URANS simulation of the flow field near a hovering model of the Caradonna and Tung (1981) helicopter rotor [1]. The CFD code SPARC [2] proves to be capable of capturing the aerodynamics of a two -bladed rotor in high-speed transonic hover conditions. A comparison of the simulation results with the experimental data is acceptable, hence the described methodology might be used with confidence in future numerical studies of application of noise-reducing devices on helicopter blades.