Development and validation of a fast mid-fidelity comprehensive analysis tool for generic e-VTOL configurations

Abstract

This paper presents development and validation of a mid-fidelity fast vortex rotorcraft comprehensive analysis tool specialized for flight mechanics and handling quality analysis of multiple rotor configurations having severe interactional aerodynamics. Mid-fidelity simulation framework includes Vortex Particle Method (VPM) accelerated by GPU and coupled with a Generic Air Vehicle Model (GAVM) which is a mathematical model for analysis of generic configurations such as propeller aircrafts, conventional and unconventional rotorcrafts, multi-rotor and tilt-rotor eVTOL configurations. This work presents the development, integration and validation stages for a mid-fidelity aerodynamics and flight mechanics comprehensive analysis framework for further research specialized for eVTOL design, performance, control design and handling quality analysis by modeling correct rotor wake dynamics and interactions. Simulation cases are presented including rotor-rotor, rotor-body and rotor-lifting surfaces interactions for conventional helicopter and multi-rotor configurations. In addition to the development and integration, several validation cases are presented that are covering rotor in hover, rotor in edgewise flight, propeller in axial flight and rotor-body interactions. Detailed comparisons with direct CFD solutions are presented