Experimental study of wake impingement on a horizontal stabalizer

Open Access
- Author:
- Metkowski, Leonard P
- Graduate Program:
- Aerospace Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- December 08, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Sven Schmitz, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Mark David Maughmer, Committee Member
Amy Ruth Pritchett, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Aerodynamics
Helicopter
Hubs
Empennage
Experimental
Interactional Aerodynamics
Helicopter Hub Drag
Experimental Design
Helicopter Hub Experiments
Horizontal Stabilizer
Helicopter Stabilizer
Experiments on Helicopter Stabilizers
Wake Impingement - Abstract:
- The design and execution of a full-scale Reynold’s number water tunnel experiment was performed to create a data set used to analyze the effects of wake impingement on a canonical helicopter horizontal stabilizer. The experiment was designed and performed in the Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel, where a 10.5 inch chord stabilizer was placed in the 48-inch diameter test section downstream of a 1/4 scale helicopter hub. Computational design tools, including finite element methods, were used to evaluate structural and aerodynamic properties of the model prior to experimentation. The model was designed to be mounted in the far-field wake, which occurs at an estimated seven hub radii downstream. Lift, drag, pitching moments, and unsteady pressures were measured on the horizontal stabilizer. The hub-wake interaction results were compared to a control test, which was performed without a hub upstream. Steady and unsteady pressure sensors were also used to help evaluate primary frequencies within the wake convecting over the horizontal stabilizer. The temporal analysis yielded a 2/rev, 4/rev, 6/rev, and respective higher harmonics in the far-field wake. Further analysis including proper orthogonal decomposition performed on particle image velocimetry fields yielded similar results.