The use of augmented rotor inflow to predict rotorcraft responses in hover and low-speed manoeuvres

Dheeraj Agarwal*, Linghai Lu, Gareth D. Padfield, Mark D. White, Neil Cameron

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
26 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The rotorcraft is a complex dynamical system that demands specialist modelling skills, and a high level of understanding of the aeromechanics arising from the main rotor wake and aerodynamic couplings. One such example is the difficulty predicting off-axis responses, particularly in hover and low-speed flight, associated with induced velocity variation through the rotor disk resulting from the rotor wake distortions. Various approaches have been developed to deal with this phenomenon but usually demand prerequisites of high levels of expertise and profound aerodynamic knowledge. This paper presents a new and practical approach to capturing this wake distortion through an augmented rotor inflow model. The proposed model is coupled with a nonlinear simulation using the FLIGHTLAB environment, and comparisons are made between the simulation results and flight test data from the National Research Council of Canada's Advanced System Research Aircraft in hover and low speed. Results show good predictability of the proposed nonlinear model structure, demonstrated by its capability to closely match the time responses to multi-step control inputs from flight test. The results reported are part of ongoing research at Liverpool and Cranfield University into rotorcraft simulation fidelity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1168-1186
Number of pages19
JournalAeronautical Journal
Volume126
Issue number1301
Early online date28 Jul 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The research reported in this paper is funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P031277/1 and EP/P030009/1). Acknowledgments

Publisher Copyright:
©

Keywords

  • Augmented inflow
  • FLIGHTLAB
  • Keywords: Rotorcraft
  • Simulation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Aerospace Engineering

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