Boundary Conforming Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Approach for Rotorcraft Simulations

A numerical method has been developed for predicting the complex vortex wake for a helicopter rotor in hover and in forward flight. The method is based on the solution of the three-dimensional, compressible Euler equations expressed in an arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian reference frame. A second-order accurate discontinuous Galerkin finite element method is used to discretize the governing equations on a hexahedral mesh. Unstructured, local mesh refinement is performed to enable prediction of the structure of the vortex wake. The capabilities of this computational fluid dynamics method are demonstrated by simulations of the flow around the Caradonna-Tung helicopter rotor in hover and simulations of the flow around the Operational Loads Survey helicopter rotor in forward flight

[1]  Mark S. Shephard,et al.  Automated adaptive time-discontinuous finite element method for unsteady compressible airfoil aerodynamics , 1994 .

[2]  George Em Karniadakis,et al.  The Development of Discontinuous Galerkin Methods , 2000 .

[3]  J. Baeder,et al.  Flowfield of a Lifting Rotor in Hover: A Navier-Stokes Simulation , 1992 .

[4]  Eiji Shima,et al.  BVI Noise Predictions by Moving Overlapped Grid Method , 1999 .

[5]  R. Biswas,et al.  An Overset Grid Navier-Stokes/Kirchhoff-Surface Method for Rotorcraft Aeroacoustic Predictions , 1996 .

[6]  J. V. D. Vegt,et al.  Space--time discontinuous Galerkin finite element method with dynamic grid motion for inviscid compressible flows: I. general formulation , 2002 .

[7]  Leonid Oliker,et al.  Efficient Helicopter Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic Predictions on Parallel Computers , 1996 .

[8]  O. J. Boelens,et al.  Multitlme multlgrid convergence acceleration for periodic problems with future applications to rotor simulations , 2001 .

[9]  F. X. Caradonna,et al.  Experimental and Analytical Studies of a Model Helicopter Rotor in Hover , 1980 .

[10]  Chi-Wang Shu,et al.  Analysis of the discontinuous Galerkin method applied to the diffusion operator , 1999 .

[11]  Lakshmi N. Sankar,et al.  Recent Improvements to a Hybrid Method for Rotors in Forward Flight , 2000 .

[12]  K. Pahlke,et al.  Calculations of Multibladed Rotors in Forward Flight Using 3D Euler Methods of DLR and ONERA , 1996 .

[13]  K. Pahlke,et al.  Calculation of Multibladed Rotors in Forward Flight Using a 3D Navier-Stokes Method , 2000 .

[14]  Casey L. Burley,et al.  A Consistent Approach for Modeling the Aerodynamics of Self-Generated Rotor Blade-Vortex Interactions , 1996 .

[15]  E. Duque,et al.  Numerical simulation of a hovering rotor using embedded grids , 1992 .

[16]  Carlo L. Bottasso,et al.  Parallel Adaptive Finite Element Euler Flow Solver for Rotary Wing Aerodynamics , 1997 .

[17]  Roger C. Strawn,et al.  Rotorcraft Aeroacoustics Computations with Overset-Grid CFD Methods , 1998 .

[18]  Francis Caradonna.  Developments and challenges in rotorcraft aerodynamics , 2000 .

[19]  O. J. Boelens,et al.  Accurate and efficient vortex-capturing for a helicopter rotor in hover , 2000 .

[20]  K. Pahlke.  Berechnung von Strömungsfeldern um Hubschrauberrotoren im Vorwärtsflug durch die Lösung der Euler-Gleichungen , 1999 .

[21]  H. van der Ven,et al.  Accuracy, resolution, and computational complexity of a discontinuous Galerkin finite element method , 2000 .

[22]  Karen Dragon Devine,et al.  Parallel adaptive hp -refinement techniques for conservation laws , 1996 .

[23]  Bernardo Cockburn,et al.  Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Convection-Dominated Problems , 1999 .

[24]  Roger C. Strawn,et al.  Computational modeling of hovering rotors and wakes , 2000 .

[25]  W. R. Splettstoesser,et al.  Helicopter Model Rotor-Blade Vortex Interaction Impulsive Noise: Scalability and Parametric Variations , 1984 .

[26]  M. Shephard,et al.  Adaptive CFD analysis for rotorcraft aerodynamics , 2000 .

[27]  Timothy J. Barth,et al.  High-order methods for computational physics , 1999 .

[28]  J. Raddatz,et al.  Calculations of Multibladed Rotors in Hover using 3D Euler Methods of DLR and ONERA , 1995 .

[29]  O. J. Boelens,et al.  Accurate and efficient vortex-capturing for rotor blade vortex interaction , 2000 .

[30]  Roger C. Strawn,et al.  Hovering Rotor and Wake Calculations with an Overset-Grid Navier-Stokes Solver , 1999 .

[31]  Rupak Biswas,et al.  Helicopter Noise Predictions Using Kirchhoff Methods , 1995 .

[32]  Lakshmi N. Sankar,et al.  A REVIEW OF COMPUTATIONAL TECHNIQUES FOR ROTOR WAKE MODELING , 2000 .

[33]  H. van der Ven,et al.  Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Method with Anisotropic Local Grid Refinement for Inviscid Compressible Flows , 1998 .