Abstract
The current research investigates the aerodynamic performance of a four-bladed helicopter rotor using WIND code [1]. The rotor is configured as a moving Chimera gild in a quasi-steady flow field. In order to validate the Chimera facility in the WIND code, some preliminary studies of aerodynamic interference were carried out in [2] for both two-dimensional (2-D) airfoils in tandem and three-dimensional (3-D) multi-element wing and flap. Following this preliminary work, the moving Chimera grid in a quasi-steady flow field was further verified in Ref [3], wherein a single moving airfoil as well as a 3-D simple helicopter rotor without cyclic pitching/flapping were investigated. As a continuation of the research in Refs [2] and [3], the current investigation studies the aerodynamic performance of a four-bladed rotor. Each blade is twisted in the radial direction. The blade motion schedules, as prescribed in Ref. [4] from Langley Research Center of NASA, include both azimuth rotation and cyclic pitching. The results from the current investigation have the potential to provide a critical guidance to the rotor model based on the actuator-disk assumption.