Conceptual design and performance analysis software tool for rotorcraft systems

Abstract

The availability of a free open source tool for the design and performance evaluation of rotary wing aircrafts is scarce, this work intends to provide a solution for engineering students, aircraft engineers or anyone interested in aircraft design with such a tool. The tool applies the Momentum theory and the Blade Element theory to execute the analysis of the rotor performance and presents the results in a clear and simple way (power against airspeed plots, rotor disk distribution plots of the calculated variables, as well as numerical results explicitly identified). A small data base with airfoils (and their aerodynamic performances) is included in the tool. The tool’s results validation is done and presented to assure the user of the reliability of the analyses done.