This project is performed under the Office of Naval Research program on Basic and Applied Research in Sea-Based Aviation (ONR BAA12-SN-0028). This project addresses the Sea Based Aviation (SBA) virtual dynamic interface (VDI) research topic area Fast, high-fidelity physics-based simulation of coupled aerodynamics of moving ship and maneuvering rotorcraft . All software supporting piloted simulations must run at real time speeds or faster. This requirement drives the number of equations that can be solved and in turn the fidelity of supporting physics based models. For real-time aircraft simulations, all aerodynamic related information for both the aircraft and the environment are incorporated into the simulation by way of lookup tables. This approach decouples the aerodynamics of the aircraft from the rest of its external environment. However, when an aircraft is flying very close to another body (i.e. a ship superstructure) significant aerodynamic coupling can exist. In such cases it is necessary to perform simultaneous calculations of both the Navier-Stokes equations and the aircraft equations of motion in order to achieve a high level of fidelity. This project will explore novel numerical modeling and computer hardware approaches with the goal of real time, fully coupled CFD for virtual dynamic interface modeling & simulation. During the period of this report, fully coupled simulations of the helicopter hovering near ground at different altitudes have been performed. Time-averaged CFD predictions have been compared with recently published experimental data. In addition, time-history results for the dynamic response of the helicopter are presented for all the cases. Fully coupled simulations are shown to be feasible, to exhibit reasonable physical behavior, and to capture expected aerodynamic coupling effects. Extended results to a variety of cases, including the presence of walls, and sloped and partial ground effects will be presented in the next report.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite