Application of the Helios Computational Platform to Rotorcraft Flowfields

Abstract

This article describes the architecture, components, capabilities, and validation of the rst version of the Helios platform, targeted towards rotorcraft aerodynamics. Capabilities delivered in the rst version include fuselage aerodynamics with and without momentumdisk rotor models, and isolated rotor dynamics for ideal hover and forward ight coupled with aeroelasticity and trim. Helios is based on an overset framework that employs unstructured mixed-element meshes in the near-body domain combined with high-order Cartesian meshes in the o-body domain. In addition, the aerodynamics solution is coupled with structural dynamics and trim using a delta-coupling algorithm. The near-body CFD, obody CFD, CSD and trim modules are coupled using a Python infrastructure that controls the execution sequence of the solution procedure. Specic validation studies presented include the Slowed Rotor Compound fuselage, Georgia Tech rotor body, TRAM rotor in hover and UH-60A rotor in forward ight. In all cases, Helios predictions are compared with experimental data and other state-of-the-art codes to demonstrate the accuracy, eciency and scalability of the code.