Nomenclature

Numerical simulation of hovering rotorcraft flow fields with emphasis on the accurate capture of the vortical wake is examined. The present approach utilizes the OVERFLOW Navier-Stokes flow solver, which has been enhanced with a solution adaptive grid capability. Regions of the flow within the off-body Cartesian grid that contain concentrated levels of vorticity are systematically refined within the constraints of the overset zonal grid approach. The resulting vortical flow field is captured more accurately relative to solutions that do not use any form of refinement and with significantly fewer grid points relative to solutions that utilize uniform refinement