The use of computational fluid dynamics in the investigation of stall onset on tilt-rotor blades

Abstract

An experimental setup has been designed to examine rotor blade stall flutter. The blade had to be designed so that it does not exceed the maximum permissible load on the rotor rig to be employed for wind tunnel tests, while maximising the blade loading to allow for the blade to be excited. An original set of blades where first tested to examine the possibility of their reuse. On discovery that they required too much power to drive them at the required collective computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to aid a new design