Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

Emerald Article: Analyses on ducted tail rotor and airfoil aerodynamic

characteristics with CFD
Yihua Cao, Ke Chen, Jian Wang
Article information:
To cite this document: Yihua Cao, Ke Chen, Jian Wang, (2005),"Analyses on ducted tail rotor and airfoil aerodynamic
characteristics with CFD", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 77 Iss: 1 pp. 62 - 67
Permanent link to this document:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00022660510576055
Downloaded on: 08-05-2012
References: This document contains references to 9 other documents
To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
This document has been downloaded 1164 times.
Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA
For Authors:
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service.
Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Additional help
for authors is available for Emerald subscribers. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
With over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in
business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as
well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is
a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive
preservation.
*Related content and download information correct at time of download.
Analyses on ducted tail rotor and airfoil
aerodynamic characteristics with CFD
Yihua Cao, Ke Chen and Jian Wang
Department of Flight Vehicle Design and Applied Mechanics, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing,
Peoples Republic of China
Abstract
Purpose To establish a method for the calculations in the eld of rotor aerodynamics.
Design/methodology/approach The calculations of the lift-drag characteristics of OAF and NACA63A312 airfoils at low speed are made using
Jameson/TVD mixed scheme. By means of nite volume approach for numerical discretization and Runge-Kutta time-stepping advance, Euler/Navier-
Stokes equations are solved. Furthermore, a model based on circular tiny segment momentum theory and blade element theory is established to study
the thrust and power of ducted tail rotor.
Findings The results of the calculation demonstrate the feasibility of the established method for analyzing ducted tail rotor aerodynamic
characteristics.
Research limitations/implications Although the global thrust and power of ducted tail-rotor could be obtained using current method, the exact
ow led (such as shroud pressure eld and the ow over fan blade) calculations still rely on the complex three-dimensional CFD technique that should
be studied in future.
Practical implications A very useful method for the preliminary design of the ducted tail rotor.
Originality/value By comparing the calculated results with those of relevant experiment, it is proved that the method developed here is suitable for
the calculations in the eld of rotor aerodynamics.
Keywords Aerodynamics, Rotary engines, Finite volume methods
Paper type Research paper
Nomenclature
a
/
lift coefcient slope
b tail rotor blade chord
C
TR
tail rotor thrust coefcient
H ight altitude
m
k
power coefcient
P the consumed power of tail rotor
q the ratio of duct thrust to total thrust
R tail rotor blade radius
r
0
tail rotor hub radius
Td, T total thrust of ducted tail rotor system
T
R
thrust of unducted tail rotor system
Ts thrust of the duct
V
0
the inow velocity in the far upstream
V
1
the airow velocity at the rotor disk
V
2
the airow velocity in the far wake
v
1
the induced velocity at the rotor disk
v
2
the induced velocity in the far wake
f
0
tail rotor blade pitch at r 0
f
7
tail rotor blade pitch at r 0:7R
Df blade linear twist rate
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of computational technique, it
has become an important research method to solve classical
governing equations of uid dynamics with numerical
simulation methods, specically in rotor aerodynamics
(Davis and Chang, 1987). To date, various computational
methods have been investigated, and the nite volume
central differential scheme created by Jameson et al. (1981)
has been demonstrated to be a robust method and has been
widely used in computational rotor aerodynamics. Recently,
many high-resolution schemes are emerging, for example,
the total-variation-diminishing (TVD) scheme (Wang and
Widhopf, 1987) is a representative one. Lift-drag
characteristics of OAF and NACA63A312 airfoils at low
speed are calculated in this paper by using the above-
mentioned method.
To study the thrust and power of ducted tail rotor, a
computation model based on circular tiny segment
momentum theory and blade element theory is established
to calculate the thrust and power in hover and axial ow state.
Owing to a big hub and large effect of swirl ow only at blade
root, the effects of swirl ow in rotor wake is not considered in
the model.
2. Analyses on airfoil oweld using CFD
2.1 Governing equations
For two-dimensional problems, the compressible N-S
equations can be represented in the following conservation
form:
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0002-2667.htm
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal
77/1 (2005) 6267
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0002-2667]
[DOI 10.1108/00022660510576055]
62
W
t

F
x

G
y

R
x

S
y
1
where
W
r
ru
rv
re
_

_
_

_
; F
ru
ru
2
p
ruv
ruh
_

_
_

_
; G
rv
ruv
rv
2
p
rvh
_

_
_

_
;
R
0
t
xx
t
yx
kT
x
t
xx
u t
yx
v
_

_
_

_
; S
0
t
xy
t
yy
kT
y
t
xy
u t
yy
v
_

_
_

_
2
t
xx
2m
u
x
l
u
x

v
y
_ _
t
xy
t
yx
m
u
y

v
x
_ _
t
yy
2m
v
y
l
u
x

v
y
_ _
l 2
2
3
m
3
In equation (1), R and S are viscous terms. If nonviscous
assumptions are applied, then R and S are both equal to zero,
and the N-S equations regress into the Euler equation. Also,
m represents the viscous coefcient, and k represents the heat
conductive coefcient. In turbulent ow, m and k are
expressed with the following two equations:
m m
t
m
l
; k c
p
m
l
p
rl

m
t
p
rt
_ _
4
where m
t
and m
l
represent turbulent viscous coefcient and
laminar viscous coefcient. The m
l
can be obtained from
Sutherland formula (White, 1994), whereas m
t
, being subject
to a different turbulent model, is calculated through the
Baldwin-Lomax algebraic model (Baldwin and Lomax,
1978), in which p
rl
is 0.72 and p
rt
is 0.9.
In the expressions for W, F and G, e and h are unit
energy and unit enthalpy, respectively. For the solution of
those equations, other equations should be employed as
follows:
e
p
g 2 1r

1
2
u
2
v
2
h e
p
r
; p rRT 5
The process for solving the above governing equations can be
found in Cao et al. (2003).
2.2 Analyses on the calculation results
An O-type grid around the airfoils of OAF and
NACA63A312 is generated using Thompsons method
at rst, and then solutions of the Euler/N-S equations
using Jameson/TVD mixed schemes (Cao et al., 2003)
can be obtained. The calculation results are analyzed as
follows.
Figure 1 shows the C
y
-a curve of NACA63A312 airfoil,
which describes the variation of lift coefcient C
y
with angle
of attack (AOA) a. The calculated result of this paper is
shown in Figure 1(a). It can be found that there is the same
type of variation curve as the experimental data shown in
Figure 1(b) (Abbott et al., 1950). The variation trend for
these two curves are identical and in good agreement with
each other in the eld of a . 248:
Figure 2 shows the C
y
variation of OAF airfoil with AOA a
at Mach number M 0:5: As compared with Figure 1(a), it is
found that the stall angle of attack a
st
and maximum lift
coefcient C
y
of OAF airfoil become apparently larger than
that of NACA63A312 airfoil. This qualitative result is
consistent with one of the paper by Vialle and
Arnaud (1993). The variations of drag coefcient C
x
of
OAF and NACA63A312 airfoils with a are also shown in
Figure 3.
Figure 2 C
y
-a of OAF
Figure 1 C
y
-a of NACA63A312
Analyses on ducted tail rotor and airfoil aerodynamic characteristics
Yihua Cao, Ke Chen and Jian Wang
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal
Volume 77 Number 1 2005 6267
63
3. Circular tiny segment momentum theory and
blade element theory
3.1 Theoretical method
If the inow velocity in the far upstream is V
0
, and the
induced velocities at the rotor disk and in the far wake are v
1
and v
2
, respectively, then there are equations as follows:
V
1
V
0
v
1
V
2
V
0
v
2
From momentum equation, there are
T
d
T
R
T
S
rV
1
S
1
V
2
2 V
0

P
1
2
rV
1
S
1
V
2
2
2 V
2
0
_ _
6
By substituting P T
R
V
1
into the above equations, the
following equation can be obtained:
T
R

1
2
rS
1
V
2
2
2 V
2
0
_ _
7
As for circular tiny segment momentum theory, tiny segment
thrust is expressed by
dT
R

1
2
r V
2
2
2 V
2
0
_ _
dS
1
dS
1
2pr dr
In coefcient form, based on the rotor tip speed VR these
results become
dC
TR

1
2
r V
2
2
2 V
2
0
_ _
2pr dr
1
2
rVR
2
pR
2

V
2
2
2 V
2
0
_ _
VR
2
2 r d r 8
From blade element theory, there is
dT dY cosb

2 dX sinb

dY
Vr
W
2 dX
V
0
v
1

W
thus,
dC
TR
sC
y
Wr 2sC
x
WV
1
d r 9
Let equation (8)equation (9), then
2 V
2
2
2 V
2
0
_ _
s C
y
W 2 C
x
W
V
1
r
_ _
10
Now introduce a proportional factor q T
S
=T
d
(Fairchild
et al., 1973) to express the ratio of duct thrust to total thrust.
From equations (6) and (7), we can obtain the following
equation:
q 1 2
1
2

V
2
V
0
V
1
i.e.
V
2
21 2 qV
1
2 V
0
Thus, the following equation comes into existence:
V
2
2
2 V
2
0
_ _
41 2 q
2
V
2
1
2 41 2 qV
1
V
0
_ _
By substituting the above equation into equation (10), the
following formula is obtained
2 41 2 q
2
V
2
1
2 41 2 qV
1
V
0
_ _
sa
1
w
7
rDw 2 0:7Dw 2 tan
21
V
1
r
_ _ _ _
r
2
V
2
1
_
2sC
x
V
1
r

r
2
V
2
1
_
11
Furthermore, there is:
sa
1
w
7
rDw 2 0:7Dw 2 tan
21
V
1
r
_ _ _ _
r
2
V
2
1
_
2
sC
x
V
1
r

r
2
V
2
1
_
2 81 2 q 1 2 qV
2
1
2 V
1
V
0
_ _
0
12
The above formula is a monotonically varied transcendental
equation, which can be solved using Newton method or the
other numerical method. Variable q in the equation represents
the distribution relationship of thrust between the rotor and
duct wall. The exact value of q depends on the experiment or
it is estimated through complex theory methods.
The power coefcient is calculated through the following
equation:
m
k

1
4
k
p
sC
x7
C
TR
V
0
JC
TR
v
1dx
13
3.2 Analyses on the calculation results
The calculations of the thrust and power of ducted tail-rotor
with NACA63A312 aerofoil are made using the above
method. The results calculated are listed as follows.
Figure 3 C
x
-a of OAF and NACA63A312
Analyses on ducted tail rotor and airfoil aerodynamic characteristics
Yihua Cao, Ke Chen and Jian Wang
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal
Volume 77 Number 1 2005 6267
64
3.2.1 Thrust
From Figure 4 it is found that thrust of ducted tail-rotor
decreases gradually with the increase of altitude H at hover.
As for axial ow condition, the thrust of ducted tail-rotor
shown in Figure 5 at 15 m/s lateral wind drops a lot as
compared with that at hover, since lateral wind makes section
inow angle larger and AOA smaller. Furthermore, from
Figure 6 it can be found that thrust drops with the rise of
lateral wind velocity V
0
.
From Figures 7 and 8 it is found that thrust increases with
the rise of blade chord b at both ight altitudes H 0 and
5,000 for International Standard Atmosphere (ISA)
condition.
Figure 9 shows that the thrust of ducted tail rotor changes
with b for ISA 208C and H 0: It has the same variation
trend as the one shown in Figures 7 and 8, except for the
slight drop of thrust for ISA 208C condition.
Figures 10 and 11 show the thrust variations of ducted tail
rotor with b for V
0
15 m=s lateral wind velocity condition at
Figure 4 T-w7 curves at hover (ISA, q 0.45)
Figure 5 T-w7 curves at 15 m/s lateral wind (ISA, q 0.45)
Figure 8 T-b curve (H 5,000, ISA)
Figure 9 T-b curve (H 0, ISA 208C)
Figure 6 T-w7 curve for different lateral wind velocities (H 5,000,
ISA, q 0.45)
Figure 7 T-b curve (H 0, ISA)
Figure 10 T-b curve (H 0, ISA, V
0
15 m/s)
Analyses on ducted tail rotor and airfoil aerodynamic characteristics
Yihua Cao, Ke Chen and Jian Wang
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal
Volume 77 Number 1 2005 6267
65
H 0 and 5,000. As compared with Figures 7 and 8, it is
found that thrust drops with the rise of lateral wind velocity
V
0
.
3.2.2 Power
Figures 12 and 13 show the power changes with altitudes at
hover and 15 m/s lateral wind for ISA condition.
Furthermore, Figure 14 also shows the power changes for
different lateral wind velocities. It is found that the variation
trend of power is similar to the one of thrust.
From Figures 15 and 16 it is found that power increases
with the rise of blade chord b at H 0 and 5,000. Figure 17
shows that power consumed of ducted tail rotor changes with
b at H 0 for ISA 208C: It has the same trend as the one in
shown Figure 15, except for the slight drop of power for
ISA 208C condition.
Figures 18 and 19 show power variations with blade pitch
w
7
for different blade chord b at 15 m/s lateral wind. It is
found that power decreases with the increase of altitudes.
Furthermore, by comparing Figure 19 with Figure 16, it can
Figure 12 P-w7 curve at hover (ISA, q 0.45)
Figure 15 P-b curve (H 0, ISA)
Figure 11 T-b curve (H 5,000, ISA, V
0
15 m/s)
Figure 13 P-w7 curve at 15 m/s lateral wind (H 0, ISA, q 0.45)
Figure 14 P-w7 curve for different lateral wind velocities (H 5,000,
ISA, q 0.45)
Figure 16 P-b curve (H 5,000, ISA)
Figure 17 P-b curve (H 0, ISA 208C)
Analyses on ducted tail rotor and airfoil aerodynamic characteristics
Yihua Cao, Ke Chen and Jian Wang
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal
Volume 77 Number 1 2005 6267
66
be found that the power slightly drops with the rise of lateral
wind velocity V
0
.
4. Conclusions
1 Using Jameson/TVD mixed scheme, the lift and drag
coefcients of OAF and NACA63A312 airfoils for ducted
tail rotor are successfully calculated.
2 Based on circular tiny segment momentum theory and
blade element theory, the model of ducted tail rotor for
engineering applications is perfectly established.
3 Through combining CFD technique and the model of
ducted tail rotor established here, the calculations of
thrust and power of ducted tail-rotor for different states
could be accomplished.
4 Although the global thrust and power of ducted tail-rotor
could be obtained using the above method, the exact ow
led (such as shroud pressure eld and the ow over fan
blade) calculations still rely on the complex three-
dimensional CFD technique.
References
Abbott, I.H., Doenhoff, A.E. and Stivers, L.S. (1950),
Summary of airfoil data, NACA Report No. 824,
pp. 421-3.
Baldwin, B.S. and Lomax, H. (1978), Thin layer
approximation and algebraic model for separated
turbulent ows, AIAA Paper, pp. 78-257.
Cao, Yihua, Wang, J. and Su, Y. (2003), Mixed Jameson/
total-variation-diminishing scheme applied to simulating
rotor airfoil oweld, AIAA Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 40
No. 1, pp. 213-6.
Davis, S.S. and Chang, I.C. (1987), The critical role of
computational uid dynamics in rotary-wing
aerodynamics, Vertica, Vol. 11 No. 1-2, pp. 43-63.
Fairchild, J.E., Batra, N.N. and Stewart, R.L. (1973),
Inuence of design parameters on fan-in-n static
performance, paper presented at the 29th Annual Forum
of the American Helicopter Society, Preprint No. 701,
Washington, DC.
Jameson, A., Schmidt, W. and Turkel, E. (1981), Numerical
solution of the euler equation by nite volume method
using Runge-Kutta time-stepping schemes, AIAA Paper
81-1529.
Vialle, M. and Arnaud, G. (1993), A new generation of
fenestron fan-in-n tail rotor on EC 135, paper presented
at the Nineteenth European Rotorcraft Forum, Paper No.
D4, Cernobbio (Como) Italy.
Wang, J.C.T. and Widhopf, G.F. (1987), A high-resolution
TVD nite volume scheme for the Euler equations in
conservation form, AIAA Paper 87-0538.
White, F.M. (1994), Fluid Mechanics, McGraw-Hill,
New York, NY, pp. 294-446.
Figure 18 P-b curve (H 0, ISA, V
0
15 m/s)
Figure 19 P-b curve (H 5,000, ISA, V
0
15 m/s)
Analyses on ducted tail rotor and airfoil aerodynamic characteristics
Yihua Cao, Ke Chen and Jian Wang
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal
Volume 77 Number 1 2005 6267
67