The sandy environment is one of the typical environments in which helicopters operate. Air-sand two-phase flow in sandy environments may be an important factor affecting flight safety. Taking a typical example, this paper aims to investigate the aerodynamic and rotor trim characteristics of the UH-60 helicopter in sandy environments.

    Design/methodology/approach

    A computational study is conducted to simulate the air-sand flow over airfoils based on the Euler–Lagrange framework. The simulation uses the S-A turbulence model and the two-way momentum coupling methodology. Additionally, the trim characteristics of the UH-60 rotor are calculated based on the isolated rotor trim algorithm.

    Findings

    The simulation results show that air-sand flow significantly affects the aerodynamic characteristics of the SC1095 airfoil and the SC1094R8 airfoil. The presence of sand particles leads to a decrease in lift and an increase in drag. The calculation results of the UH-60 helicopter rotor indicate that the thrust decreases and the torque increases in the sandy environment. To maintain a steady forward flight in sandy environments, it is necessary to increase the collective pitch and the longitudinal cyclic pitch.

    Originality/value

    In this paper, the aerodynamic characteristics of airfoils and the trim characteristics in the air-sand flow of the UH-60 helicopter are discussed, which might be a new view to analyse the impact of sandy environments on helicopter safety and manoeuvring.


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    Title :

    Helicopter airfoil aerodynamic characteristics and rotor trim in sandy environments


    Contributors:
    Huang, Zejian (author) / Cao, Yihua (author) / Wang, Yanyang (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2024-03-07


    Size :

    8 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English