Simulation Program for Rotary Wing Aircraft RotaryWingSim 2.0

kolibri282

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The program for performance and stability calculation of various rotor craft - RotaryWingSim - is now available. The version number is 2.0 to distinguish it from the pure helicopter program 1.0. The program is a beta release which means it is far from complete or thoroughly tested, rather anyone using it is a beta tester and I would appreciate your contributions to enhance the program. Throughout the four years of working on this program I have made numerous attempts to find people supporting my effort, so far without success. One major reason for releasing the program thus is one more attempt to find groups or individuals who will help to improve the program. You can support this goal by spreading word about this program even if you do not intend to use it or take part in its further development yourself. Please notify anyone who might be interested in this program by talking to students, universities or whoever you deem likely to be inclined to participate in this effort.

Program Features
Currently the program offers two basic calculation modes. A helicopter mode where the rotational speed of the rotor is constant and an autogyro mode where either rotor rpm for a given collective pitch or collective pitch for a given rotor rpm are calculated. The different calculation modes currently offer the features listed below ( prescribed input values are to the left of the -> , calculated output is to the right).

a) Helicopter Mode
- Performance Calculation: Rate of Climb, Power to Hover, Flight Envelope
- Trim Calculation:
- Prescribed Rotational Speed -> Cyclic, Collective Pitch

b) Autogyro Mode
- Trim Calculation 1:
...Prescribed Rotational Speed -> Cyclic and Collective Pitch
- Trim Calculation 2:
...Prescribed Collective Pitch -> Rotational Speed, Cyclic Pitch
-
c) Helicopter- and Autogyro Mode
- Calculation of aircraft trim values for straight and level as well as
...climbing/descending flight.
- Calculation of Engine power to trim.
- Linear geometric blade twist can be included
- Rotor state calculation method (a): formulae of naca 716 for rectangular
...blades are used. The blades are considered rigid, no cyclic twist
...considered
- Rotor state calculation method (b): formulae of naca 600 for rectangular
...blades are used. Cyclic twist as exhibited e.g. by the Cierva C-30 is included
- Especially for helicopters the horizontal stabilizer is sometimes connected
...to the cyclic via a linkage that changes the angle of attack in conjunction
...with cyclic input. Such so called gearing curves can be entered as
...polynomials.
- Rotor downwash on the horizontal stabilizer and the fuselage is included
...using the values from Heyson and Katzoff
- Fuselage aerodynamic coefficients are included using polynomials
- Investigation of winged or wingless configurations.
- Wing aerodynamic coefficients are included using two dimensional,
...Reynolds dependent profile data in xfoil format.
- Stability: stability derivatives, solution of stability quartic

In both modes the aircraft flight state in trimmed flight is calculated first, then the stability derivatives are calculated via small perturbations applied to each of the trim variables in turn. The stability derivatives in autogyro mode are currently not deemed correct since rotor speed does not change during the perturbation steps used to calculate them.


The archive below contains the code, sample input files and a brief user guide.

Version 2p1 is the one which allows calculation of helicopter and autogyros. The simulink model in this file does no longer work. It is included to offer a basis from which to work if you want one. This version is available here:

https://magentacloud.de/s/AtWDoYKqWmNTP5C

and on github:

https://github.com/juergenhumt/RotaryWingSimGyro

You will need Octave, a free Matlab (TM) clone to run the program. Please read the "Getting Started" section of the user guide



RotaryWingSim version 1p21 is the one which contains the helicopter model including a Simulink file. In the documentation folder you find a small user guide and the report which was used as a basis for the program. I include it into this post for completeness, it is available here

https://magentacloud.de/s/R3gS4XDbzqSr2pC





Please post all questions and contributions to the separate thread which I have opened
in the "Theory of Flight" section:
http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/sho...236#post573236
 
Last edited:
That is almost a 10 year old post with no follow ups.....
It would be great if someone could model something for X-plane though....
I only build in the real world, don't know how to build pixels.....
 
That is almost a 10 year old post with no follow ups.....
It would be great if someone could model something for X-plane though....
I only build in the real world, don't know how to build pixels.....
Funny... I only build software and pixels (and drones), not manned aircraft...
 
Over the years I had received seven or eight requests for the software, three of them actually from China. Another one arrived just yesterday and I have uploaded the program to another server, since the link in the post above had been obsolete for years now. So if someone would like to have a look you can download it once again.
AutoGyro has developed a pretty professional simulation program for their autogyros, I was able to test it briefly during one of their customer events several years ago. It is a real pitty that they did not offer it to the public. I think that would be a great marketing stunt.
 
Over the years I had received seven or eight requests for the software, three of them actually from China. Another one arrived just yesterday and I have uploaded the program to another server, since the link in the post above had been obsolete for years now. So if someone would like to have a look you can download it once again.
AutoGyro has developed a pretty professional simulation program for their autogyros, I was able to test it briefly during one of their customer events several years ago. It is a real pitty that they did not offer it to the public. I think that would be a great marketing stunt.
I know people have modeled a gyro for X-plane, but don't know if it was realistic.
X-plane is responsible for a lot of major projects despite it's start as an open source program.
I know they used it for Rutan's "SpaceShipOne" project for modeling the carrier vehicle and the actual space ship.
The test pilots said both aircraft flew exactly like the models.
It was also used by an amateur who blew holes in NASA's plan to use a glider for a Mars mission....

I modeled one of my delta wings as an ultralight about 20 years ago and it performed better than expected in the simulator,
but my computer modeling skills are highly questionable...
 
We have to distinguish between a real time simulation, which can be used in a flight simulator, and a mathematical model for aircraft development, which usually tries to capture everything that influences aircraft behaviour in a non negligible way. My program is a (probably poor) attempt to achieve the latter. The most common problem is, that none of the existing flight sims captures the rotor dynamics of a gyro. For a gyro rotor speed varies considerably with the flight state. The best way to model this probably is a numerical rotor model with reduced complexity. Since my goal always was to develop a new kind of rotor craft I never aimed for real time simulation.
 
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