High Fidelity, Real-Time, Rotor Wake Module with Shipboard Interactions

An advanced rotorcraft induced velocity software module has been developed for enhancing the fidelity of real-time piloted simulations of rotorcraft shipboard operations. This software module is built upon real-time solutions of the full-span, free-vortex rotor wake combined with fast panel models. An innovation of the modeling approach is an approximate method for including rotorcraft wake interactions with a ship airwake model, which can be developed from off-line computational fluid dynamics analysis. The software module is designed for operation within an existing rotorcraft flight dynamics simulation and provides an induced velocity model for capturing normal flight conditions, rotor-fuselage-empennage interactions, vertical descent/vortex ring state, full/partial ground effect for moving ground planes (ship decks), and ship airwake effects. The software module has been integrated in a Navy MH-60 simulation and tested in a pilot evaluation during previous development in Phase II. The proposed technology transition program will provide additional software enhancements and refinements to improve modeling accuracy in a piloted simulation (trainer); detailed testing during multiple pilot evaluations; and integration and evaluation within a fleet trainer to provide demonstration in a prototypical operational environment.