Hovering Helicopter Rotors Modeling Using the Actuator Line Method

An implementation of the actuator line method (ALM) is applied to a hovering helicopter rotor. This method, which is widely used for wind turbine simulations, replaces the rotor blades by momentum source terms in the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. The removal of the blade mesh significantly reduces the computational mesh size, thus lowering the computational cost. The ALM is presented along with some improvements, notably the choice and treatment of the projection kernel. A parameter sweep is performed showcasing the importance of proper selection of the Gaussian smearing coefficient for accurate rotor performance predictions with a value of scaled around a quarter chord in size. With this value, a new set of simulations on a refined mesh is performed and analyzed covering global rotor performance coefficients, sectional blade loading, tip vortex characteristics in terms of positions, circulation, and core radius. The ALM is benchmarked against an equivalent blade resolved case on the well-known S-76 rotor. Results confirm the appropriateness of the ALM model for a hovering rotor for main flow features and performance metrics, although there was a small loss of accuracy on the tip blade loading in the presence of a blade–vortex interaction. Finally, computational performances indicate an elapsed-time speed-up between 3 and 4× in addition to a greater parallel efficiency in favor of the ALM.