High angle of attack helicopter blade-vortex interaction; numerical studies using LES

Author(s):  
Marcel Ilie ◽  
Husam Al-Kuran ◽  
Patricia Coronado ◽  
Ge-Cheng Zha
2012 ◽  
Vol 225 ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
M.F. Yaakub ◽  
A.A. Wahab ◽  
Mohammad Fahmi Abdul Ghafir ◽  
Siti Nur Mariani Mohd Yunos ◽  
Siti Juita Mastura Mohd Salleh ◽  
...  

During helicopter forward flight, the retreating blade revolves at high angle of attack compared to advancing blade in order to balance the lift and also to stabilise the helicopter. However, due to the aerodynamics limitations of the retreating blade at forward flight, stall may occur at high angle of attack compared with the advancing blade. This phenomenon is dangerous for pilot when controlling and balancing the helicopter while flying against strong wind. This paper investigates the capabilities of introducing multiple vortex traps on the upper surface of the helicopter airfoil in order to delay the stall angle of retreating helicopter blade. Blade Element Theory (BET) was applied to scrutinize the lift force along the helicopter blade. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analyses using the Shear-Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model was carried out to investigate the effect of groove on delaying the stall and to predict the separation of flow over the airfoil. Based on the CFD analyses, the optimization of the groove was done by analyzing the numbers and locations of the grooves. Finally, the results from both BET and the CFD analyses were utilised to obtain the lift force achieved by the vortex trap. The study showed that the presence of multiple vortex traps has successfully increased the lift coefficient and most importantly, delaying the stall angle.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2593
Author(s):  
Yasir Al-Okbi ◽  
Tze Pei Chong ◽  
Oksana Stalnov

Leading edge serration is now a well-established and effective passive control device for the reduction of turbulence–leading edge interaction noise, and for the suppression of boundary layer separation at high angle of attack. It is envisaged that leading edge blowing could produce the same mechanisms as those produced by a serrated leading edge to enhance the aeroacoustics and aerodynamic performances of aerofoil. Aeroacoustically, injection of mass airflow from the leading edge (against the incoming turbulent flow) can be an effective mechanism to decrease the turbulence intensity, and/or alter the stagnation point. According to classical theory on the aerofoil leading edge noise, there is a potential for the leading edge blowing to reduce the level of turbulence–leading edge interaction noise radiation. Aerodynamically, after the mixing between the injected air and the incoming flow, a shear instability is likely to be triggered owing to the different flow directions. The resulting vortical flow will then propagate along the main flow direction across the aerofoil surface. These vortical flows generated indirectly owing to the leading edge blowing could also be effective to mitigate boundary layer separation at high angle of attack. The objectives of this paper are to validate these hypotheses, and combine the serration and blowing together on the leading edge to harvest further improvement on the aeroacoustics and aerodynamic performances. Results presented in this paper strongly indicate that leading edge blowing, which is an active flow control method, can indeed mimic and even enhance the bio-inspired leading edge serration effectively.


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