AERODYNAMIC STUDY OF THE EC135 FENESTRON® IN HOVERING FLIGHT CONDITIONS BY MEANS OF CFD

The paper presents a comparison between the numerical results of three different flow solvers, each of them implementing a different modelling strategy, on the same Fenestron® geometry of the EC135 Helicopter. A comparison in terms of power versus thrust between all predictions results and the test bench measurements available at Eurocopter [2] is shown. A deeper analysis of the local aerodynamic inside the EC135 Fenestron®, as computed by the most complex methodology, is also shown. The paper concludes by listing advantages and limitations of each computational strategy and suggesting a strategy for each possible industrial application.