• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.614-623
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• 2015

When the speed of a coaxial rotor helicopter in forward flight increases, the wake skew angle of the rotor increases and consequently the position of the vena contracta of the upper rotor with respect to the lower rotor changes. Considering ambient air and the effect of the upper rotor, this study proposes a nonuniform inflow model for the lower rotor of a coaxial rotor helicopter in forward flight. The total required power of the coaxial rotor system was compared against Dingeldein's experimental data, and the results of the proposed model were well matched. A plant model was also developed from first principles for flight simulation, unknown parameter estimation and control analysis. The coaxial rotor helicopter used for this study was manufactured for surveillance and reconnaissance and does not have any stabilizer bar. Therefore, a feedback controller was included during flight test and parameter estimation to overcome unstable situations. Predicted responses of parameter estimation and validation show good agreement with experimental data. Therefore, the methodology described in this paper can be used to develop numerical plant model, study non-uniform inflow model, conduct performance analysis and parameter estimation of coaxial rotor as well as other rotorcrafts in forward flight.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.23-33
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• 2009

The inherent aeromechanical complexity of a rotor system necessitated the comprehensive analysis code for helicopter rotor system. In the present study, an aerodynamic analysis module has been developed as a part of rotorcraft comprehensive program. Aerodynamic analysis module is largely classified into airload calculation routine and inflow analysis routine. For airload calculation, quasi-steady analysis model is employed based on the blade element method with the correction of unsteady aerodynamic effects. In order to take unsteady effects - body motion effects and dynamic stall - into account, aerodynamic coefficients are corrected by considering Leishman-Beddoes's unsteady model. Various inflow models and vortex wake models are implemented in the aerodynamic module to consider wake induced inflow. Specifically, linear inflow, dynamic inflow, prescribed wake and free wake model are integrated into the present module. The aerodynamic characteristics of each method are compared and validated against available experimental data such as Elliot's induced inflow distribution and sectional normal force coefficients of AH-1G. In order to validate unsteady aerodynamic model, 2-D unsteady model for NACA0012 airfoil is validated against aerodynamic coefficients of McAlister's experimental data.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.224-231
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• 2009

In this study, an aerodynamic performance analysis code has been developed as a part of rotorcraft comprehensive program. Airloads on rotor blades are calculated based on the blade element theory with look-up tables of aerodynamic coefficients of 2-D airfoils. In order to calculate rotor induced inflow, various inflow prediction methods such as linear inflow, dynamic inflow, prescribed wake and free wake model are integrated into the present module. The aerodynamic characteristics of each method are compared and validated against available experimental data such as Elliot's inflow distribution and sectional normal force coefficients of AH-1G.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Marine Engineers Conference
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• 2012.06a
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• pp.154-154
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• 2012

Many suggestions is offered to resolve global warming. Tidal current generation is producing power by switched tidal difference sea water horizontal fluid flow produced by tidal difference using rotor and generator. So, change the angle of inflow condition due to the entrance of efficiency are considered. We therefore investigated three dimensional flow analysis and performance evaluation using commercial ANSYS-CFX code for horizontal axis turbine. Then We also studied three dimensional flow characteristics of a rotating rotor and blade surface streamlines around a rotor. As a result, Cp was highest at TSR 5.5, especially the larger changes in the angle of inflow condition decreased efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.1087-1096
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• 2011

The purpose of current study is to develop and verify the newly developed solver for analyzing rotor flow using the open-source code. The algorithm of standard solver, OpenFOAM, is improved to analyze the rotor inflow with and without fuselage. For the calculation of the rotor thrust, the virtual blade method based on the blade element method is employed. The inflow velocities on the rotor disk used to specify the effective angle of attack, have been included in the solver. The results of the current rotor inflow analysis are verified by comparing with other experimental and numerical results. It was confirmed that the modified solver provides satisfactory results for rotor-fuselage interaction problem.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.49-59
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• 2012

The present study is devoted to the influence of a superposed radial inflow in a rotor-stator cavity with a peripheral opening. The flow regime is turbulent, the two boundary layers being separated by a core region. An original theoretical solution is obtained for the core region, explaining the reason why a weak radial inflow has no major influence near the periphery of the cavity but strongly affects the flow behavior near the axis. The validity of the theory is tested with the help of a new set of experimental data including the radial and tangential mean velocity components, as well as three components of the Reynolds stress tensor measured by hot-wire anemometry. The theoretical results are also in good agreement with numerical results obtained with the Fluent code and experimental data from the literature.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.124-129
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• 2007

Prediction methods for a rotor averaged inflow in forward flight are investigated in this study. The investigated methods are Drees linear inflow model, Mangler & Squire model and free vortex wake(FVW) method. Predictions have been performed for a four-blade rotor operating at three different advance ratios i.e. 0.15, 0.23 and 0.30, at which experimental data are available. According to results, Drees model has a limitation for the inflow non-uniformity prediction due to an inherent linear characteristics. Mangler & Squire model has a reasonable accuracy except the disk edge region. KARI FVW method has very good accuracy and has better accuracy than the other FVW method especially in inboard region. However, there are some discrepancies in retreating side due to the dynamic stall effect and in near hub region due to the fuselage upwash effect.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.17-22
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• 2002

Non-uniform and unsteady inflow into a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) brings about an asymmetric flow field on the rotor plane and an unsteady aerodynamic load on the blades. In the present paper effects of yawed inflow and wind shear are analyzed by an inviscid aerodynamic model based on the asymptotic acceleration potential method. In the analysis the rotor blades are represented by spanwise and chordwise pressure distribution composed of analytical first-order asymptotic solutions for the Laplace equation. As the actual wind field experienced by a HAWT is turbulent, the effects of the turbulence are also examined using the Veers' model.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.84-96
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• 2005

Helical tip vortex is known as stable vortex structure, however the specific frequency component of far wake perturbation induces the vortex pairing in hover and axial flight. It is expected that the tip vortex pairing phenomena may happen in transition flight and very low advance ratio flight so that inflow may be most nonuniform in the low advance ratio flight. The objectives of this paper are that a tip-vortex instability during the transition from hover into very low advance ratio forward flight is numerically predicted to understand a physics by using a time-marching free-wake method. To achieve the objectives, numerical method is firstly validated in typical axial and forward flights cases. Present scheme with trim routine can predict airloads and inflow distribution of forward flight with good accuracy. Then, the transition flight condition is calculated. The rotor used in this wake calculation is a small-scale AH-1G model. By using a tip-vortex trajectory tracking method, the tip-vortex pairing process are clearly observed in transient flight($\mu$=0.03) and disappears at a slightly higher advance ratio($\mu$=0.05). According to the steady flight simulation at $\mu$=0.03, it is confirmed the tip-vortex pairing process is continued in the rear part of rotor disk and not occurs in the front part. Time averaged inflow in this case is predicted as smooth distribution.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.197-205
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• 2009

Since large-scale commercial wind turbine generator systems such as MW-class wind turbines are becoming widely operated, the vibration and distortion of the blade are becoming larger and larger. Therefore the soft structure design instead of the solid-design is one of the important concepts to reduce the structural load and the cost of the wind turbine rotors. The objectives of the study are development of the fluid-structure coupled analysis code and evaluation of soft rotor-blade design to reduce the unsteady structural blade load. In this paper, fluid-structure coupled analysis for the HAWT rotor blade is performed by free wake panel method coupled with hinge-spring blade model for the flapwise blade motion. In the model, the continuous deflection of the rotor blade is represented by flapping angle of the hinge with one degree of freedom. The calculation results are evaluated by comparison with the database of the NREL unsteady aerodynamic experiment. In the analysis the unsteady flapwise moments in yawed inflow conditions are compared for the blades with different flapwise eigen frequencies.