Rudimentary effects of emblematic gust excitations on the lift performance of coaxial helicopter rotor blades

Abstract

Aerodynamic valuation plays an imperative role in understanding the characteristic response of a helicopter with respect to the airflow. Understanding the airflow around the helicopter is much more challenging compared to the flow field around a fixed-wing aircraft. The situation becomes even more convoluted when environmental turbulences are introduced in the scene such as the gust wind loading, which is one of the most catastrophic commotions. Refereeing to the obvious, this study took out this daunting task to actually generate artificial gust and study its effects on the main rotor airflow physiognomies of a coaxially configured subscale helicopter. Quantitative data congregated by measuring the rotor induced airspeed underneath the rotor blades, which is quintessentially the lift/thrust, have revealed intriguing outcomes. The implementations of various strengths of active robust gust have caused the helicopter to experience half-hearted rolling motion pared with the incremental loss of altitude during hover. For forward flight, this investigation reveals the helicopter distinctively lost cruising speed along with the altitude as well when subjected to the gust. During hover and forward flight conditions, results depict that lift is decreased about 33% when subjected to the gust. These findings are alleged to be valuable for future research and development in the rotorcraft industry.