High Fidelity Simulation of Tiltrotor Aerodynamic Interference

Rotorcraft aerodynamic interaction is a complicated problem and remains an extremely difficult aspect of rotorcraft modeling and simulation. In this research, a state-of-the-art Vortex Particle Method (VPM) is applied to addressing the challenging tiltrotor aircraft aerodynamic interference problems with the aim of developing a high fidelity flight simulation in support of tiltrotor aircraft design, engineering, flight testing, and training. The tiltrotor simulation developed from this study combines a blade element rotor model with the first principle based vortex particle simulation. The simulation thus developed was validated against both wind tunnel tiltrotor interference flowfield measurements and full flight tiltrotor aircraft critical azimuth test cases. Excellent agreement between the simulation and the measured data was achieved, which substantiates the modeling methodology.