Numerical Simulation of Helicopter Rotor Blades in Hover

Reynolds-averaged thin-layer compressible Navier-Stokes steady simulations are presented for the Caradonna & Tung helicopter model rotor in hover, using the finite-volume based flow solver FINFLO. Computations are performed for the kappa - epsilon and the kappa - omega SST turbulence models. Two Chimera and non-Chimera hover approaches are implemented. Fairly good correlation between the computed pressure coefficients and the experimental performances is achieved for a blade collective pitch angle of 8° along five locations on the blade span. The results indicate little grid sensitivity for both turbulence models and uniformly well predicted the capture of the tip vortices. In addition, the friction coefficients compared well to each other in the three gridding approaches, considering the blades are assumed to be rigid bodies. Despite the results obtained, the numerical simulations could be improved with further analysis and developments. These improvements should be concerned with the use of more sophisticated turbulence models and higher order schemes, the availability of high performance computers because of the important computing time. In addition, the investigations should account for the blade deformations