A Research on Rotor/Ship Wake Characteristics under Atmospheric Boundary Layer Conditions

The environment for the shipboard landing and takeoff of helicopters is extremely complex and significantly affects their safe flight. To address the intricate characteristics of the flow field during these operations, a simulation method suitable for rotor/ship wake vortex interaction is developed. This method couples the Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (DDES) method and the momentum source method. The simulation of flow field characteristics of the SFS2 ship model under different conditions reveals that, in a rotor/ship coupling scenario, the inflow velocity in the wake zone of the flight deck is distributed in a “W” shape due to the influence of the rotor blade tip vortex. Under wind shear conditions, the rotor’s influence on the wake is reduced, resulting in smaller velocity fluctuations compared to uniform inflow conditions. Moreover, the detached eddy is suppressed to some extent. It can be concluded that shear flow mitigates the unsteady characteristics of the ship’s wake zone to some extent, which is beneficial to helicopter operations during takeoff and landing.