Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-pnlb5 Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-10-31T04:41:04.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The virtual AirDyn: a simulation technique for evaluating the aerodynamic impact of ship superstructures on helicopter operations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2016

C. H. Kääriä ,
J. S. Forrest  and
I. Owen
C. H. Kääriä
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
J. S. Forrest
Affiliation:
Prism Defence, Adelaide, Australia
I. Owen*
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
*
iowen@lincoln.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper describes a simulation technique that has been developed to quantify the unsteady forces and moments that are imposed onto a maritime helicopter by a ship’s airwake during a deck landing. An unsteady CFD-generated airwake, created using a CAD model of the ship, is integrated with a flight dynamics model of a helicopter. By holding the helicopter at a fixed position in the airwake it is possible to quantify the unsteady forces and moments imposed on the aircraft. The technique is therefore a software-based airwake dynamometer, and has been called the virtual AirDyn. As well as determining the mean loads, from consideration of the unsteady loads in the closed-loop pilot response frequency range of 0·2-2Hz it is also possible to quantify the magnitude of the unsteady disturbance in each axis. The loads are also indicators of the control activity the pilot would have to exert to maintain aircraft position and attitude. By placing the virtual AirDyn at different positions around the landing deck in different wind conditions, it is able to quantify the effect of the airwake on the mean and unsteady loads. The quantified loads can be explained by examining the CFD-generated flow field, and the geometric features on the ship’s superstructure that gave rise to them can be identified. The virtual AirDyn is therefore a tool that can be used to evaluate and inform ship design for maritime helicopter operations.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 117 , Issue 1198 , December 2013 , pp. 1233 - 1248
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1. Cheney, B.T. and Zan, S.J. CFD Code validation data and flow topology for the Technical Co-operation Program AER-TP2 Simple Frigate Shape, 1999, National Research Council of Canada, Report LTR-LA-294.Google Scholar
2. Zan, S.J. Surface flow topology for a simple frigate shape, Canadian Aeronautics and Space J, 2001, 47, (1), pp 33–43.Google Scholar
3. Johns, K.M. and Healey, J.V. The airwake of a DD-963 Class destroyer, Naval Engineer’s J, 1989, 101, (3), pp 36–42.Google Scholar
4. Healey, J.V. Establishing a database for flight in the wakes of structures, J Aircr, 1992, 29, (4), pp 559–564.Google Scholar
5. Rhoades, M.M. and Healey, J.V. Flight deck aerodynamics of a nonaviation ship, J Aircr, 1992, 29, (4), pp 619–626.Google Scholar
6. Brownell, C.J., Luznik, L, Snyder, M.R., Kang, H.S. and Wilkinson, C.H. In situ measurements in the near-wake of a ship superstructure, J Aircr, 2012, 49, (5), pp 1440–1450.Google Scholar
7. Bardera Mora, R. An experimental helicopter wind envelope for ship operations, World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 2012, 68, pp 1362–1369.Google Scholar
8. Forrest, J.S. and Owen, I. Investigation of ship airwakes using detached-eddy simulation, Computers and Fluids, 2010, 39, pp 656–673.Google Scholar
9. Thorber, B., Starr, M. and Drikakis, D. Implicit large eddy simulation of ship airwakes, Aeronaut J, 2010, 114, (1162), pp 715–736.Google Scholar
10. Polsky, S.A. and Bruner, C.W. Time-accurate computational simulations of an LHA ship airwake, 2000, AIAA Paper 2000-4126, 18th Applied Aerodynamics Conference and Exhibition, August 2000 Denver, CO, USA.Google Scholar
11. Polsky, S.A. A Computational study of unsteady ship airwake, 2002, AIAA Paper 2000-4126, 40th Applied Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibition, 14-17 January 2002, Reno, N V, USA.Google Scholar
12. Zan, S.J. On aerodynamic modelling and simulation of the dynamic interface, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Aerospace Engineering, 2005, 219, pp 393–410.Google Scholar
13. Lee, R.G. and Zan, S.J. Unsteady aerodynamic loading on a helicopter fuselage in a ship airwake, J American Helicopter Society, April 2004, 49, 2, pp 149–159.Google Scholar
14. Lee, R.G. and Zan, S.J. Wind tunnel testing of a helicopter fuselage and rotor in a ship airwake, September 2003, 29th European Rotorcraft Forum, Freidrichstrafen, Germany.Google Scholar
15. Wang, Y., Curran, J., Padfield, G.D. and Owen, I. AirDyn: An instrumented model-scale helicopter for measuring unsteady aerodynamic loading in airwakes, Meas Sci Technol, 2012, 22, (4), 045901.Google Scholar
16. Kääriä, C.H., Wang, Y., Padfield, G.D., Forrest, J.S. and Owen, I. Aerodynamic loading characteristics of a model-scale helicopter in a ship’s airwake, J Aircr, 2012, 49, 4, pp 1020–1031.Google Scholar
17. Kääriä, C.H., Wang, Y., White, M.D. and Owen, I. An experimental technique for evaluating the aerodynamic impact of ship superstructures on helicopter operations, Ocean Engineering, 2013, 61, pp 97–108.Google Scholar
18. Forrest, J.S., Hodge, S.J., Owen, I. and Padfield, G.D. An investigation of ship airwake phenomena using time-accurate CFD and piloted helicopter flight simulation, September 2008, 34th European Rotorcraft Forum, Liverpool, UK.Google Scholar
19. Duval, R.W. A real-time multi-body dynamics architecture for rotorcraft simulation, November 2001, RAeS Flight Simulation Group Conference on The Challenge in Achieving Realistic Training in Advanced Rotorcraft Simulators, London, UK.Google Scholar
20. Manimala, B.J., Walker, D.J., Padfield, G.D., Voskuijl, M. and Gubbles, A.W. Rotorcraft simulation modelling and validation for control law design, Aeronaut J, February 2007, 111, (1116), pp 77–88.Google Scholar
21. Howlett, J.J. UH-60A Black Hawk Engineering Simulation Program: Volume I – Mathematical model, December 1981, NASA-CR-166309.Google Scholar
22. Beck, C.P. and Funk, J.D. Development and validation of a Seahawk blade element helicopter model in support of rotorcraft shipboard operations, May 1994, RAeS Rotorcraft Group Conference on Rotorcraft Simulation, London, UK.Google Scholar
23. Padfield, G.D. Helicopter Flight Dynamics, 2nd Edition, 2007, Blackwell.Google Scholar
24. McRuer, D.T. Interdisciplinary interactions and dynamic systems integration, Int J Control, 1994, 59, (1), pp 3–12.Google Scholar
25. Zan, S.J. Experimental determination of rotor thrust in a ship airwake, J American Helicopter Society, April 2002, 47, (2), pp 100–108.Google Scholar