Analysis of rotor aerodynamic response during ramp collective pitch increase by CFD method

In order to study the aerodynamic response characteristics of the helicopter rotor during ramp collective pitch increase, the moving-embedded grid technique is employed for numerical simulation. The governing equations are modeled via Navier-Stokes equations, as well as one equation S-A turbulence model. In order to improve the precision of unsteady simulation of the rotor flowfield, the three-order scheme known as Roe-WENO scheme is employed for the spatial discretization of convective fluxes, and the implicit LU-SGS scheme is adopted for the temporal discretization. The flowfield and aerodynamic characteristics of the SA349/2 Gazelle helicopter rotor are computed for verification, and thereafter, the present method is used to simulate the transient aerodynamic response of the rotor under different collective pitch increment rates. The unsteady flowfield and aerodynamic characteristics of the rotor under ramp collective pitch increase are obtained and compared with the experimental data. The results show that the numerical method not only can accurately predict the unsteady aerodynamic loads of the rotor in steady state, but also is capable of effectively simulating the transient aerodynamic response of the rotor, characterized by overshoot and delay phenomenon, during ramp collective pitch increase. Finally, the opposite ramp decrease in collective pitch and the influence of pre-twist on aerodynamic response are analyzed. The result shows that the transient aerodynamic response of the rotor under ramp collective pitch increase and decrease present a certain of symmetry. The change in pre-twist of blades only affects the thrust coefficient in steady state, while have little influence on the transient maneuvering process of collective pitch.