Integrated flow field characteristics of helicopter/particle separator: Part 2 influence of rotor disk load

Integrated flow field characteristics of helicopter/particle separator under the interference of rotor downwash flow were studied by combination of the actuator disk model combining three dimensional viscosity simulations. Firstly, the ROBIN (rotor body interaction) experiment model was used to check the validity of the numerical methods, then an Apache-like helicopter with different rotor disk loads under different advance ratios were investigated. Finally some comparisons between the integrated flow and the independent flow of particle separator were made. The results show that rotor downwash flow has much more influence on separated flow characteristics of particle separator at lower advance ratio and the total pressure loss of scavenge exit is reduced under the downwash flow environment. At higher advance ratio, compared to no disk load state, the separation section upstream the gear box moves to the sides and becomes bigger while the performance of particle separator changes little when the separator operated in the downwash environment.