An actuator surface model has been developed that couples an aerodynamics model to a computational fluid dynamics solver. The model is designed for simulation of rotors in complex operating environments, and it advances a recently developed actuator surface model through the addition of two new elements: a computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-convected wake model, and an improved coupling algorithm. The wake model uses Lagrangian particle tracking to determine the geometry of the rotor wake from the CFD solution. Prior study of the influence of the maximum wake age in the model led to the conclusion that only 45 deg of wake is required for accurate resolution of air loads. The S-76 rotor in hover and the UH-60A rotor in forward flight are used for validation. Thrust coefficients, torque coefficients, and figures of merit over a range of collective settings agree well with experimental data for the S-76 rotor. Sectional normal force coefficients in forward flight are compared with experimental data, results from resolved-blade simulations, and other rotor models: again showing good agreement. These results suggest the new actuator surface model can predict time-accurate rotor loads where accurate resolution of the near-blade flowfield and high-frequency loads, such as blade–vortex interactions, are not critical.

已经开发了一种致动器表面模型，该模型将空气动力学模型耦合到计算流体动力学求解器。该模型旨在用于复杂运行环境中的转子仿真，并且通过添加两个新元素来推进最近开发的执行器表面模型：计算流体力学（CFD）对流尾流模型和改进的耦合算法。尾流模型使用拉格朗日粒子跟踪来确定CFD解决方案中的转子尾流的几何形状。对模型中最大尾流年龄的影响的先前研究得出的结论是，仅需45度尾流即可精确解析空气载荷。悬停时使用S-76旋翼，前飞时使用UH-60A旋翼进行验证。推力系数，扭矩系数，和一系列集合设置的品质因数与S-76转子的实验数据非常吻合。将前向飞行中的截面法向力系数与实验数据，分解叶片仿真结果以及其他旋翼模型进行比较：再次显示出良好的一致性。这些结果表明，新的执行器表面模型可以预测时间精确的转子负载，而近叶片流场的精确分辨率和诸如叶片-涡流相互作用之类的高频负载并不关键。