Airfoil-vortex interaction using the compressible vorticity confinement method

The phenomenon of blade-vortex interaction (BVI) is central to the study of rotorcraft aerodynamics and aeroacoustics. The numerical simulation of BVI is challenging because most numerical schemes tend to alter the characteristics of the vortex, which must be preserved until the interaction. The compressible vorticity confinement method (CVCM) is capable of preserving vortices and requires minimal modifications to existing computational-fluid-dynamics codes. Inviscid and viscous calculations using a range of turbulence models have been carried out for a well-known, head-on BVI case. This is the first time CVCM is employed for turbulent flow calculations with an upwind solver. The results obtained using the CVCM show a good agreement with measurements.