FLOW CHARACTERISTICS OF A HELICOPTER FUSELAGE CONFIGURATION INCLUDING A ROTATING ROTOR HEAD

摘要

The reduction of emissions in air transport is clearly a main goal of the aeronautical industry today, addressing both fixed wing aircraft and rotorcraft. The first phase of the ADHeRo (Aerodynamic Design Optimization of a Helicopter Fuselage including a Rotating Rotor Head) project contributed to achieving this goal by providing detailed flow characteristics and drag analysis of a state-of-the-art Twin Engine Light class utility helicopter. This was achieved by means of wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulations. It has been shown that optimizing the parasite drag of such a configuration is a vital approach for achieving efficiency gains. In particular, this can be obtained by reducing the drag of the rotor head, the landing skids and the fuselage. The analysis revealed that reducing the interference drag of the landing skids on the fuselage also provides significant potential for efficiency gains. On the other hand, the analysis showed the importance of considering changes in the lift characteristics when optimizing components. Otherwise, efficiency gains could be lost due to higher power requirements for the main rotor.