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Helicopter flight around a ship's superstructure

Helicopter flight around a ship's superstructure
Helicopter flight around a ship's superstructure
A computational fluid dynamics model of a hovering helicopter main rotor is developed to examine air flow in the presence of ship structures and side winds. An illustration of the problem is given. The rotor is modelled by modifying the governing Navier-Stokes equations in the region of the disc. The extra terms added to the governing equations apply a downward force to the fluid; these forces are independent of the flow around the rotor and are equal to the helicopter weight. The helicopter rotor model and the ship model are combined to yield one flow solution, which, due to the severe non-linearities of the problem, cannot be achieved by superposition. The resultant flow yields valuable data about the induced velocities at the rotor, which ultimately determine the control pitch and power required to maintain the hover in a given location. Indeed, the interactions between the rotor downwash and ship air flow are known to produce unexpected and adverse flight dynamic behaviour of the aircraft.
helicopter flight, ship's superstructure, air flow, computational fluid dynamics
2041-3025
13-28
Wakefield, N.H.
8f843fff-66cc-4864-8ce6-15f4924b4228
Newman, S.J.
802c97ed-ea28-477f-8b1e-8e4f873c4281
Wilson, P.A.
8307fa11-5d5e-47f6-9961-9d43767afa00
Wakefield, N.H.
8f843fff-66cc-4864-8ce6-15f4924b4228
Newman, S.J.
802c97ed-ea28-477f-8b1e-8e4f873c4281
Wilson, P.A.
8307fa11-5d5e-47f6-9961-9d43767afa00

Wakefield, N.H., Newman, S.J. and Wilson, P.A. (2002) Helicopter flight around a ship's superstructure. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 216 (1), 13-28. (doi:10.1243/0954410021533391).

Record type: Article

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics model of a hovering helicopter main rotor is developed to examine air flow in the presence of ship structures and side winds. An illustration of the problem is given. The rotor is modelled by modifying the governing Navier-Stokes equations in the region of the disc. The extra terms added to the governing equations apply a downward force to the fluid; these forces are independent of the flow around the rotor and are equal to the helicopter weight. The helicopter rotor model and the ship model are combined to yield one flow solution, which, due to the severe non-linearities of the problem, cannot be achieved by superposition. The resultant flow yields valuable data about the induced velocities at the rotor, which ultimately determine the control pitch and power required to maintain the hover in a given location. Indeed, the interactions between the rotor downwash and ship air flow are known to produce unexpected and adverse flight dynamic behaviour of the aircraft.

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More information

Published date: 2002
Keywords: helicopter flight, ship's superstructure, air flow, computational fluid dynamics
Organisations: Fluid Structure Interactions Group

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 21746
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/21746
ISSN: 2041-3025
PURE UUID: 242b71fa-9f10-4a5b-af6b-307bb463e4f4
ORCID for P.A. Wilson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6939-682X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 14 Mar 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:35

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Contributors

Author: N.H. Wakefield
Author: S.J. Newman
Author: P.A. Wilson ORCID iD

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