Spacial Modelling and Simulation of On-deck Helicopter Securing and Manoeuvring

For smaller ships in rough seas, flight deck motion can become considerable and result in significant dynamic behaviour of embarked helicopters. The current state-of-the-art in dynamic modelling of the on-deck helicopter/ship dynamic interface includes a fully-spacial securing simulation and a separate one capable of modelling planar traversing and manoeuvring operations. A fully-spacial securing and manoeuvring simulation named SSMASH (Spacial Securing and Manoeuvring Analysis for Shipboard Helicopters) has been developed to provide complete analysis capability of the on-deck helicopter/ship dynamic interface. Specifically, a new capability to model helicopter response to manoeuvring events in the presence of flight deck motion is realized. The model is compared to the state-of-the-art securing simulation Dynaface®and experimental data from land-based manoeuvring trials. Excellent correlation with the Dynaface® simulation is achieved, while good correlation with the experimental data is also observed.