École Nationale Supérieure de
Techniques Avancées

Abstract

A free-wake numerical method for the analysis of rotor wakes has been implemented, making the assumption that the circulation does not vary along the blades. A new technique has been used to obtain steady solutions and which have been computed for every working state of the rotor, including states where no model exist for the induced velocity. Although assumption of constant circulation is not verified for these states, simliraties were found between numerical solutions and available experimental visualizations. Solutions were successfully compared to the Froude-Rankine momentum theory. Finally, a stability analysis of the solutions showed good agreement with theoretical stability results of helical vortices.