A Quantitative Approach for the Accurate CFD Simulation of Hover in Turbulent Flow

Abstract

Time-dependent Navier–Stokes simulations have been carried out for a V22 rotor in hover using an improved, low-dissipation, HLLE++ upwind algorithm in the OVERFLOW code. Emphasis is placed on lessons learned over the past decade regarding the effects of high-order spatial accuracy, grid resolution, and the use of detached eddy simulation in predicting the figure-of-merit, the rotor's chief performance parameter. A general quick-start procedure is described together with a statistical measure of FM convergence that reduces hover computations by fourfold, similar to computational work for forward flight. Cartesian adaptive mesh refinement is used to resolve the tip–vortex to its correct physical size. This adaptive mesh refinement in the rotor wake also revealed a complex turbulent flow with worm-like structures of various scales. These structures were numerically found a decade ago and recently observed in experiment.