Trimmed Simulation of a Complete Helicopter Configuration in Hover Flight

Helicopter pilot needs persistent control to stay in hover because of main rotor wake-fuselage interaction as well as main rotor-tail rotor interaction. In the present research, the main rotor-tail rotor interference was examined with computation of the moment at the main rotor shaft and describing the wake structures of main rotor and tail rotor. It was confirmed that flapping response calculation is required in order to predict rotor aerodynamics accurately and achieve convergence of solution. Also, hover flight of complete helicopter configuration was simulated, and the required pilot control inputs were obtained through numerical trim process. The trimmed pilot input and predicted flapping angle were compared with analytic trim prediction result or flight test data. There needs to be further study to find the reason for deviation with flight test data.