Interfacing comprehensive rotorcraft analysis with advanced aeromechanics and vortex wake models

This dissertation describes three aspects of the comprehensive rotorcraft analysis. First, a physics-based methodology for the modeling of hydraulic devices within multibody-based comprehensive models of rotorcraft systems is developed. This newly proposed approach can predict the fully nonlinear behavior of hydraulic devices, and pressure levels in the hydraulic chambers are coupled with the dynamic response of the system. The proposed model evaluates relevant hydraulic quantities such as chamber pressures, orifice flow rates, and pressure relief valve displacements. This model could be used to design lead-lag dampers with desirable force and damping characteristics. The second part of this research is in the area of computational aeroelasticity, in which an interface between computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational structural dynamics (CSD) is established. This interface enables data exchange between CFD and CSD with the goal of achieving accurate airloads predictions. In this work, a loose coupling approach based on the delta-airload method is developed in a finite-element method based multibody dynamics formulation, DYMORE. A loose coupling analysis between a CFD code, OVERFLOW-2, and a CSD program, DYMORE, is performed to validate this aerodynamic interface. The ability to accurately capture the wake structure around a helicopter rotor is crucial for rotorcraft performance analysis. In the third part of this thesis, a new representation of the wake vortex structure based on Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) curves and surfaces is proposed to develop an efficient model for prescribed and free wakes. The proposed formulation has the potential to reduce the computational cost associated with the use of the Helmholtz¡¯s law and the Biot-Savart law when calculating the induced flow field around the rotor. An efficient free wake analysis will considerably decrease the computational cost of comprehensive rotorcraft analysis, making the approach more attractive to routine use in industrial settings.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Bauchau, Olivier; Committee Member: Armanios, Erian; Committee Member: Hodges, Dewey; Committee Member: Ruzzene, Massimo; Committee Member: Stallybrass, Michae