Summary: High-Resolution Simulations of Parallel
Blade­Vortex Interactions
Alasdair Thom
University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom
and
Karthikeyan Duraisamy
Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
DOI: 10.2514/1.J050381
The physics of a parallel blade­vortex interaction is studied numerically and the predicted pressure and acoustic
results are compared with experimental measurements. A high-resolution solution of the compressible Euler
equations is performed on structured overset meshes. Initially, a two-dimensional airfoil­vortex interaction is
studied for both a case where the vortex misses the blade and a case of direct impact. The vortex is initiated in the flow
as a perturbation to the freestream conditions and is free to evolve, thus allowing for the deformation of the vortex as
it interacts with the blade to be studied. The simulation is seen to accurately reproduce the experimental results and
the emission of the acoustic waves from the airfoil surface is observed in detail. Acoustic energy generated by the
interaction is seen to primarily radiate from the leading-edge section of the airfoil with a weaker contribution coming
from the trailing edge. The simulations are then extended to three-dimensional moving overset meshes where the
vortex generation and convection is also resolved. The numerical methodology is seen to accurately preserve
the vortex strength and accurately reproduce the experimentally measured blade surface pressures and acoustics.
The computations presented here face similar challenges to that encountered in the simulation of realistic helicopter

Source: Alonso, Juan J. - Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University

Collections: Engineering