Verification, Validation and Calibration Under Uncertainty for a Scaled Experimental Rotor Model

Virtual Engineering (VE) in rotorcraft design is a well-established approach to support decision-making throughout the rotorcraft's life-cycle (Ref. 1). The effectiveness of structural design, analysis and CAD software, CFD solvers and rotor aeromechanics codes is crucial throughout rotorcraft life-cycle, from preliminary design phase development to certification process (Ref. 2). The required fidelity level and reducing the number of physical tests during development can be achieved by building a reliable and repeatable protocol for Verification, Validation and Uncertainty Quantification (VVUQ) of numerical models (Refs. 3-5). UQ can be exploited to both determine how much the variability of numerical and physical parameters affect the simulation outcome and perform a calibration of numerical models. This paper aims to perform the three steps of VVUQ for a digital twin of a scaled helicopter designed for wind tunnel tests. In this study, the experimental setup and numerical model will be introduced. Then, the statistical methods implemented for each step will be explained in more detail.