Real Time Physics-Based Airflow Environments for Distributed Aircrew Training

Rotorcraft operations are critical to current and future Navy missions, and thus the imperative to provide high fidelity, distributed training with enhanced realism for the aircrew and ship’s company will inevitably intensify in coming years. The technology proposed here will enable the development of revolutionary simulation tools that capture the full range of flight operations and weather conditions experienced by crews on aviation-capable ships. This effort will build on real time, physics-based modeling tools to simulate the complete ship/helicopter operational environment, leveraging CDI-developed rotorwash and flow field models already in service in support of Navy simulation activities. A key feature of the project is that environmental effects, including ship airwake, will be directly simulated using physics-based models, in contrast to data-driven approaches that are inappropriate for general distributed training applications. The simulation will also incorporate innovative tools, now being developed to visualize rotor wakes and transport of airborne materials, to create a “visible wind” to assist trainees in interpreting the airflow environment. Other effects (e.g., ship motion and structural response due to airflow-induced loads) will be integrated for use within distributed simulation environment architectures, allowing the re-use and integration of existing models techniques and commercial software tools.