Development of a steady-state computational fluid dynamics solver for transonic rotorcraft flows

Abstract

The capability for solving compressible fluid flows in the rotating frame of reference is added to an existed open-source CFD solver, namely, HiSA solver. The new implementation is explained and validated using the experimental data of the Sikorsky S-76 rotor. A comparison is presented between the moving mesh results obtained from the original HiSA code and the single rotating frame results achieved through the new implementation. The comparison includes an analysis of torque and thrust values, as well as computational costs. The results imply that, for evaluating the performance of an isolated rotor or for shape optimization purposes at the transonic regime, the single rotating frame method, like the one introduced in the current work, can provide accurate results within an acceptable computational budget. Furthermore, the results show that, at least 25 revolutions are required for the transient analysis to reach an acceptable steady-state converged solution like the one obtained by the single rotating frame method.