The effect of the ground on a rotor wake in forward flight has been investigated experimentally in the working section of an 8ft x Oft straight-through wind tunnel. A three bladed fully articulated rotor with a solidity ratio of 0.07 and diameter of 1.06m, powered by a hydraulic motor, has been tested at a height of 0.47 rotor diameter above a solid ground board which has an elliptical leading edge. Tests have been run at various low advance ratios (<0.1) with two collective pitch settings. A three-element hot wire anemometer probe has been used to measure the average value of the three components of velocity simultaneously in the forward half (advancing side) of the rotor wake and in the main stream surrounding it. The rotor wake and the ground vortices have been visualized by smoke. Surface flow patterns on the ground board have located the interaction region between the rotor wake and the oncoming flow on the ground board. Theoretical estimates of the flowfield based on Heyson's vortex cylinder model (Ref. 2) are compared with the experimental results. Both experimental results and theoretical estimates show that the ground-induced interference is an upwash and a decrease in forward velocity. The upwash interference' opposes the vertical flow through the rotor, and have large effects on the rotor performance in producing thrust. The streamwise interference decelerates the mainstream and becomes more noticeable as the wake boundary is approached.

The tumbling tip vortex effect of a reduced-scale, 1 m diameter, four-bladed rotor during hover is studied using vortex methods, combined with a center of mass analysis approach. Measurements of all three components of the velocity field are acquired using a stereo PIV system synchronized to capture up to 500 degrees of vortex age, with 10 degree wake age offsets, during hover conditions. The nominal operating condition of the rotor is at a rotational rate of 1520RPM, corresponding to ReC = 248,000 with a chord length of 58.5mm. The rotor is operated with a pitch of 7.2± 0.5 degrees and a CT/sigma of 0.045. The far wake vortex tumbling phenomenon is captured and described. It is shown that tip vortices from two blades tumble through approximately 90 degrees of rotation before they coalesce. It is also seen that the constituent parent vortices do not combine to create a stronger daughter vortex as was previously thought to happen. Instead, the merged vortex has a lower large-radius circulation than either of its parent vortices. An accurate characterization and prediction of the trajectory of the far wake vortex tumbling can enhance the ability to predict and alleviate the resuspension of particles during brownout as well as provide a database for far wake validation of CFD codes. / text

Previous research has indicated aperiodicity in the positions of tip vortices emitted from a helicopter rotor blade in hover. The objective of the current study is to develop an analysis of the tip vortex aperiodicity in hover and to validate it with measurements on a reduced-scale, 1m diameter, four-bladed rotor. A “vortex ring emitter model” (VREM) was developed to study the statistics of the tip vortices emitted from a rotor blade during hover. In order to better model the rotor wake, a number of independent vortex blobs were used to describe a vortex ring. An empirical model for viscosity was also considered which helped model the core radius growth of the vortex ring with vortex age. A parametric analysis was then performed to obtain a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative convergence study of the time step, viscosity parameter, initial core size, number of rings shed, number of blobs and overlap factor. It was observed that the solution converged rapidly for all the parameters used. The locations of tip vortex cores for vortex ages ranging from 0◦ to 260◦ were measured on the reduced-scale rotor using a stereo PIV system. The blade loading for the reduced scaled rotor was Ct /σ = 0.044 and the blade rotational speed was 1520 RPM, which corresponds to a tip Reynolds number of 248,000. The 95 % confidence region for the position of tip vortex cores exhibited an anisotropic, aperiodic pattern, approximating an ellipse. It was seen that the principal axis of this ellipse appeared to be aligned perpendicular to the slipstream boundary. The analytical model showed good correlation with experimental data in terms of the orientation and extent of the anisotropy. Moreover, an estimate of the total thrust produced and spanwise loading along the rotor blade was also obtained and compared with Blade Element Momentum Theory (BEMT). It was seen that by using more blobs to represent a vortex ring, the solution converged to the BEMT estimate. / text

iv In this thesis, numerical solutions of a 2D stator compressor cascade at a given inlet Mach number (0.7) and four values of incidence (49&deg / , 51&deg / , 53&deg / and 55&deg / ) are obtained. Reynolds averaged, thin layer, compressible Navier Stokes equations are solved. Different grid types have been generated. Finite differencing approach and LU - ADI splitting technique are used. Three block parallel Euler and Navier Stokes solutions are compared with the experimental results. Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model is used in the turbulent predictions and boundary layer comparisons and numerical results are in good agreement with the experiment. On the last part of the study, a rotor wake in the inlet flow has been introduced in the steady and unsteady analyses. The influence of this wake and the wake location in the inlet flow, to the total force and pressure is presented. The results have been showed that there is a relationship between the wake position and the incidence value of the case.

No description available.

Aeroacoustic investigations regarding different types of helicopter noise have indicated that the most annoying noise is caused by impulsive blade surface pressure changes in descent or forward flight conditions. Blade Vortex Interaction (BVI) is one of the main phenomena producing significant impulsive noise by the unsteady fluctuation in blade loading due to the rapid change of induced velocity field during interaction with vortices shed from previous blades. The tip vortex core structure and the blade vortex miss distance were identified as having a primary influence on BVI. In this thesis, piezoelectrically modulated and/or vectored blowing at the rotor blade tip is theoretically investigated as an active technique for modifying the structure of the tip vortex core as well as for increasing blade vortex miss distance. The mechanisms of formation and convection of rotor blade tip vortices up to and beyond 360 degrees wake age are described based on the CFD results for the baseline cases of a hovering rotor with rounded and square tips. A methodology combining electromechanical and CFD modeling is developed and applied to the study of a piezoelectrically modulated and vectored blowing two-dimensional wing section. The thesis is focused on the CFD analysis of rotor flow with modulated tangential blowing over a rounded blade tip, and with steady mid-plane blade tip blowing, respectively. Computational results characterizing the far-wake flow indicate that for steady tangential blowing the miss distance can be doubled compared to the baseline case, which may lead to a significant reduction in BVI noise level if this trend shown in hover can be replicated in low speed forward flight. Moreover, near-wake flow analysis show that through modulated blowing a higher dissipation of vorticity can be obtained.

Simultaneous two-point three-component four-sensor hot-wire velocity measurements taken in three flows of aeroacoustic interest are here analyzed. The analyses provide information on the turbulence structure of the flows as it would be encountered by hypothetical noise producing blades passing through the flows. Two-point measurements taken in the first flow, a lifting wake from a rectangular NACA 0012 half wing, are used to calculate space-time correlation functions and 'pointwise' wave number frequency spectra. Two upwash spectra, calculated for locations in the region of the wake that is roughly homogenous in the spanwise direction, are direct estimates of the full wave number frequency spectra at their locations. As such, they are used to perform aeroacoustic calculations, and the results are compared to results achieved using the von Kármán isotropic spectrum. Amiet's approximation, where the wave number frequency spectra can be represented by the correlation length scales is found to hold reasonably well for the measured spectra. The two-point measurements in the second flow, a vortex/blade-tip interaction, are analyzed to provide information useful to researchers of blade-wake interaction noise produced by helicopter rotors. Space-time correlation functions and wave number frequency spectra are calculated for five cuts through the region of interaction. The correlation functions provide information concerning the turbulence length scales found in the interaction region. The spectra are compared to the von Kármán isotropic spectrum and found to be greatly different. However, the spectra do bear some resemblance to spectra calculated in the spanwise homogenous region of the lifting wake. The two-point measurements taken in the third flow, the wake from a fan cascade, are analyzed to provide information of use to modelers of broadband noise produced through rotor wake/stator interactions. In particular, space-time correlation functions are calculated for a grid of two-point measurements, which allows the estimation of the turbulence structure as seen by a passing stator blade. Space-time correlation functions and wave number frequency spectra are calculated for various stator configurations. The implications of engine operating speed and stator configuration for broadband noise production are discussed. <i> [Vita removed March 2, 2012. GMc]</i> / Master of Science