Aeroelastic Analysis of Helicopter Rotor Blades Using HPC

In this paper, two different comprehensive rotor analyses are described and applied to a high speed forward flight test case using the Stuttgart NEC-SX5 HPC facility. Each analysis consists of an unsteady Euler/RANS CFD module coupled with a CSD module based on Timoshenko and Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, respectively. Deformable Chimera grids are applied for spatial discretization and resolution requirements call for the use of state-of-the-art vector super computers. Qualitatively, stand-alone aerodynamic results using a-priori trim data agree fairly well with wind tunnel measurements. Substantial improvement can be achieved by including the time-accurate structural response of the blades. Recent results indicate that the incorporation of an automated trim procedure is beneficial with respect to the agreement of computed and experimental global rotor parameters.

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