A Python-based Framework for Real-time Simulation using Comprehensive Analysis

This paper describes an open-source framework to use a rotorcraft comprehensive analysis with elastic blades and free wake for real-time simulation. Several acceleration strategies are combined with load-balanced parallelization algorithms to achieve this goal. Up to 24 times speed-up for trim, and 33 times speed-up for time marching were demonstrated for a single rotor system with 4 blades, allowing for 5 deg azimuthal time steps. Heterogeneous computing for accelerated analysis with free wake was also explored as a preliminary step towards real-time wake modeling. 23 times/29 times speed-ups were obtained with a GPU for a single rotor and coaxial rotor, respectively, compared to serial execution on CPUs. Lag-free communication between the analysis and a pilot interface is provided by a Python framework.