Graduation Semester and Year
2021
Language
English
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
First Advisor
Dudley E Smith
Second Advisor
Mark E Dreier
Abstract
Rotorcraft performance modeling is of high interest with multiple industry codes in existence, many of which are high-fidelity and are comprehensive in the analyses that are achievable. Along with the high-fidelity and the comprehensive nature of the industry codes comes an equally high level of complexity in the inputs required to extract meaningful results. The ever-increasing fidelity in the existing codes creates a need for an analysis code that is built to be highly flexible, designed from the top down and implemented from the bottom up in a structured format. The Rotor Performance Model (RPM) was developed to provide high-fidelity performance analysis options without the cost of highly complex input parameters for the rotor. To date, the code was developed with the goal of being well documented, modular, and physics-based to provide the use of macroscopic rotor input parameters and the framework to build upon with future work – all without the need for a complete re-work of the code infrastructure. With the implementation of the dynamic inflow models of Pitt-Peters, and Peters et.al., combined with a hybrid periodic shooting/Newton-Raphson technique, the blade motion trim time and closure of the thrust/induced velocity has been accelerated in the current analysis program without the necessity of a wealth of rotor input data. Significant results include nearly identical results from theory and the RPM code for the inflow velocity in hover and forward airspeed and good qualitative and quantitative power required calculated values between analytical three-term equations, the RPM code, and test data. Additionally, the RPM code allows for modeling of a trimmed rotor using control other than lateral cyclic.
Keywords
Rotorcraft performance models, Rotorcraft analyses
Disciplines
Aerospace Engineering | Engineering | Mechanical Engineering
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Balfantz, Chadwick Scott, "ROTOR PERFORMANCE MODEL (RPM)" (2021). Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses. 679.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/mechaerospace_theses/679
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington