Investigation of Rotor Tip Vortex in Hover Based on IDDES Methods

Abstract

A calculation and analysis program of high-precision numerical simulation for rotor blade tip vortex in hovering state was developed. The fifth order Roe-WENO scheme was carried out in order to reduce the numerical dissipation of the rotor wake region. The rotary motion of the rotor was realized by using the dynamic patched technology of structured grids. And at the same time, the technology also helped to avoid the tremendous increase of grid number of the far-field due to the refined grids of the flow region where emphasis was placed on. Hybrid RANS/LES approach was investigated based on the issues about inadequate capabilities of simulations of complex turbulent flows, and IDDES approach was developed. The numerical simulation of the tandem cylinder was carried out firstly to verify the reliability of the IDDES method and the patched grid technology. Then the RANS and IDDES approaches were used to simulate the flow field of the rotor in hover performance, respectively. The analysis of the vortex magnitude, vortex core position and diameter as well as the velocity profiles of the rotor tip vortex were made comparatively in detail. The numerical results showed that the resolutions obtained through IDDEES approach agreed with the experimental results much better than that of the RANS approach with the same gird scales. Meanwhile, the IDDES results can capture the tiny worm vortex structures and vortex paring phenomena in accordance with the practical status, which contributes to study the flow mechanism of rotor and related problems.