Simulation of Tail Boom Vibrations Using Main Rotor-Fuselage Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

In this work, fully-resolved rotor-fuselage interactional aerodynamics is used as the forcing term in a model based on the Euler-Bernoulli equation, aiming to simulate helicopter tail-boom vibration. The model is based on linear beam analysis and captures the effect of the blade-passing as well as the effect of the changing force direction on the boom. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) results were obtained using a well-validated helicopter simulation tool. Results for the tail-boom vibration are not validated due to lack of experimental data, but were obtained using an established analytical approach and serve to demonstrate the strong effect of aerodynamics on tail-boom aeroelastic behavior.