Rotorcraft application of advanced computational aerodynamics

The objective was to develop the capability to compute the unsteady viscous flow around rotor-body combinations. In the interest of tractability, the problem was divided into subprograms for: (1) computing the flow around a rotor blade in isolation; (2) computing the flow around a fuselage in isolation, and (3) integrating the pieces. Considerable progress has already been made by others toward computing the rotor in isolation (Srinivasen) and this work focused on the remaining tasks. These tasks required formulating a multi-block strategy for combining rotating blades and nonrotating components (i.e., a fuselage). Then an appropriate configuration was chosen for which suitable rotor body interference test data exists. Next, surface and volume grids were generated and state-of-the-art CFD codes were modified and applied to the problem