DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED ALGORITHMS FOR HIGH-FIDELITY ROTORCRAFT AEROMECHANICS PREDICTIONS WITHIN CFD/CSD-…

Public award description

DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED ALGORITHMS FOR HIGH-FIDELITY ROTORCRAFT AEROMECHANICS PREDICTIONS WITHIN CFD/CSD-COUPLED FRAMEWORKS (REFERENCE: ROA-2006, NRA NNH06ZEA001N) THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS EFFORT IS TO ADVANCE THE CAPABILITIES OF NASA'S STATE-OF-THE-ART PREDICTION TOOLS FOR ROTORCRAFT AEROMECHANICS OF THE COMPLETE VEHICLE. THIS EFFORT WILL IDENTIFY, DEVELOP AND VALIDATE ALGORITHMS THAT IMPROVE EFFICIENCY, ACCURACY AND FIDELITY OF ROTORCRAFT AEROMECHANICS PREDICTIONS (I.E. PERFORMANCE, DYNAMIC RESPONSE, LOADS, VIBRATIONS AND NOISE). DELIVERABLE ALGORITHMS WILL BE INTEGRATED INTO EXISTING COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) / COMPUTATIONAL STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS (CSD) COUPLED FRAMEWORKS THAT EMPLOY COMPREHENSIVE AERO ELASTIC CODES FOR CSD. THE ENHANCEMENTS FOCUS ON EVOLUTION OF THE ROTOR WAKE, CFD/CSD COUPLING ROBUSTNESS, AND CSD MODELING ACCURACY AND EFFICIENCY. THE RESULTING METHODOLOGY FROM THIS RESEARCH WILL IMPROVE ACCURACY AND EFFICIENCY FOR CURRENT NASA COMPUTATIONAL CAPABILITIES, HELP RESEARCHERS BETTER UNDERSTAND PHYSICAL PHENOMENA ASSOCIATED WITH ROTORCRAFT AEROMECHANICS AND INTERACTION BETWEEN MULTIPLE DISCIPLINES, AND ALLOW NASA TO ADEQUATELY ANALYZE FUTURE CONCEPTS UNDER DEVELOPMENT. FLEXIBILITY OF THE CFD/CSD COUPLED FRAMEWORK ALSO ACCOMMODATES AND FACILITATES THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FUTURE TECHNOLOGY (E.G. TRAILING-EDGE FLAP, ACTIVE TWIST ROTOR, AND ACTIVE FLOW CONTROL) INTO THE ANALYSIS. THE APPROACH IS TO MODEL UNIQUELY IDENTIFIABLE AERODYNAMIC DOMAINS APPROPRIATELY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE KEY PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH DOMAIN, DEVELOP ALGORITHMS THAT REFLECT THE PHYSICS, AND IMPLEMENT THE ALGORITHMS TO BE COMPATIBLE WITH THE EXISTING FLOW SOLVERS. THE FOLLOWING TECHNOLOGY TOPICS SHALL BE INVESTIGATED AND RESULTS REPORTED: A. FURTHER DEVELOP THE FULLY COUPLED APPROACH USING COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) IN THE VICINITY OF ROTOR BLADES TO CAPTURE THE GENERATION OF THE VORTICES, AND PARTICLE VORTEX TRANSPORT METHOD (PVTM) FOR RESOLVING THE EVOLUTION OF THE VORTICES IN THE REMAINDER OF THE FLOW FIELD. B. ADVANCE THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE FIELD VELOCITY APPROACH, WHICH ACCOUNTS FOR THE INFLUENCE OF THE PVTM WAKE ON VARIOUS CFD DOMAINS. C. ADVANCE THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE METHODS AND PROCESSES BY WHICH THE FIELD VELOCITY APPROACH CAPTURES THE ROTOR TIP VORTICES AS WELL AS THE VORTEX SHEET EMANATING FROM EACH BLADE, WITH A GOOD CORRELATION ON BLADE LOADING BETWEEN THE COMPUTATIONS AND FLIGHT TEST DATA.