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Analysis Of Helicopter Downwash/Frigate Airwake Interaction Using Statistically Designed Experiments, Yavuz Nacakli

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A research program to investigate helicopter downwash/frigate airwake interaction has been initiated using a statistically robust experimental program featuring Design of Experiments. Engineering analysis of the helicopter/frigate interface is complicated by the fact that two flowfields become inherently coupled as separation distance decreases. The final objective of this work is to develop experimental methods to determine when computer simulations need to include the effects of a coupled flowfield versus using a simplified representation by superposing the velocity fields of the individual flowfields. The work presented was performed in the Old Dominion University Low Speed Wind Tunnel using a simplified 1/50 …