Investigation of the effects of aerodynamic models in helicopter flight mechanics and performance

Date

2026-6-5

Author

Bayrak, Yusuf

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Accurate modeling of rotor aerodynamics is crucial for high-fidelity simulation of helicopter flight mechanics. However, a trade-off consistently exists between physical fidelity and computational efficiency. This thesis presents a comprehensive investigation into the effects of different aerodynamic inflow models on helicopter dynamics and performance. The primary objective is to evaluate the suitability of the state-space free vortex wake (SSFVW) model for flight mechanics applications by comparing it against established legacy models, specifically the Glauert and Pitt-Peters inflow models. A unified simulation environment, called the Helicopter Rotor Simulations (HeRoS), is developed in MATLAB/Simulink. This in-house simulation tool is based on the Blade Element Theory (BET) and SSFVW model, employing a vectorized blade element formulation, and is validated against the industry-standard FlightLab software and available experimental data. Comparative analyses are conducted for various flight regimes, including hover, forward flight, and maneuvering conditions. The results demonstrate that while the SSFVW model has a significantly higher computational cost, it provides higher fidelity in capturing complex wake phenomena such as non-uniform induced velocity distributions, wake contraction, and blade-vortex interactions. The dynamic response analyses reveal that the SSFVW model captures the high-frequency transient aerodynamic loads that are smoothed out by the simplified dynamic inflow formulations. This study concludes that while currently computationally intensive for real-time applications, the SSFVW model offers a critical advantage in physical accuracy for control system design and performance analyses.

Subject Keywords

Helicopter flight mechanics, Aerodynamic modeling, Free vortex wake, Inflow models, Rotorcraft simulation

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/119740

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis