ROTORCRAFT AERODYNAMICS

ASSIGNMENT 2

Submitted by
Muhammad Abdullah Tahir
180101034
Aero 17 (A)

Submitted to
Dr. Jamshed Riaz

Supervised by
Ms. Surrayya Mobeen

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Institute of Space Technology
Islamabad
2021
Copyright © 2021

This document is jointly copyrighted by the authors and the Institute of Space

Technology (IST). The author and IST can use, publish, or reproduce this document in

any form. Under the copyright law no part of this document can be reproduced by

anyone, except copyright holders, without the permission of the authors.

1. Thrust Co-efficient vs Gross Weight:

Helicopters are categorized by weight. Specifically, "light", "medium lift", and

"heavy lift" helicopters. Light helicopters are those generally considered below
12,000 pounds maximum gross weight. "Medium lift", are generally considered
those from about 14,000 to 45,000 pounds. And we will assume that above 50,000
pounds are “heavy lift” helicopter.

Helicopter name
S# Helicopter type
Light
1 Bell 206 Jet-ranger
Light
2 Schweizer S-333
Light
3 Bell AH-1 Cobra
Medium
4 Apache AH-64
Medium
5 Sikorsky uh-60 Black hawk
Medium
6 Boeing ch-47 Chinook
Heavy
7 Sikorsky MH-63
Heavy
8 MIL Mi-26

Table 1: Selected Helicopters for study

1.1.Scatter Plots:
• To construct the plots, we use some following equations.
𝑇
𝐶𝑇 =
𝜌𝐴(Ω 𝑅)2

CT = Thrust Coefficient

T = Thrust provided by rotor in lbs

ρ = Density of air at altitude in slugs/ft3

A = Area of main rotor disc in ft2

Ω = Rotational velocity of main rotor blades in rad/s

R = Radius of rotor disc in ft

• Data for these helicopters is obtained through Wikipedia and
Vertipedia.
• The thrust to be provided by the rotor was kept equal to the gross
weight of the aircraft to fulfil the hover requirement of the helicopter.
• These thrust coefficients were calculated at two different altitudes: at

sea level, and at 5000 ft at standard temperature and pressures.

• The data was then tabulated as shown in the Appendix A at the end of
this report and the thrust coefficients were calculated through the
formula mentioned above in excel.

THRUST COEFFICIENT at SEA LEVEL vs Gross Weight

0.014

0.012

0.01
Thrust Coeffficent

0.008 THRUST COEFFICIENT at

SEA LEVEL
0.006 Linear (THRUST
COEFFICIENT at SEA LEVEL)
0.004

0.002

0
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000
Gross Weight

Table 2: Scatter plot at sea-level

 THRUST COEFFICIENT at 5000 ft
0.06

0.05

thrust coefficient
0.04

0.03

0.02

0.01

0
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000
gross weight

Table 3: Scatter Plot at 5000 ft

Thrust Coefficients vs Gross weight

0.06

0.05

0.04

0.03

0.02

0.01

0
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000

THRUST COEFFICIENT at SEA LEVEL THRUST COEFFICIENT at 5000 ft

Table 4: both previous graph at the same time

• Both thrust coefficient values at each altitude were plotted on the same

graph to compare the values. It is apparent from Fig. 9 that as the altitude

increases, the thrust requirement for the helicopter increases because of

the low density of air and hence, the thrust coefficient value increases.

We can also see that as the gross weight increases the thrust coefficient

of the helicopter increases.

 2. Compare the power requirement with the power of engine installed on the

helicopter.

• Using a Matlab code and a set of equations we can find the power

required at any altitude from momentum theory.

• This theory is very simple and is easy to understand.

• It is not very accurate as it has taken many assumptions and this

assumption simplify the problem and problem can be identified quickly.

• In this section, the power required by the helicopters mentioned in the

previous section, at hover flight condition, will be calculated. This

power required will then be compared to the actual engine power

obtained from the engine data provided in Vertipedia.

𝑇𝐵
𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 = 𝑇𝐵 √( )
2𝐴𝜌

𝐼𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
𝐹. 𝑀. =
𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟

• Appendix B. The comparison table of actual power required at both altitudes and
the actual engine power is shown below:
S# Class Helicopter Engine Actual Actual
Power power (hp) power
(hp) @ sea level (hp) @
5000 ft

1 Light Bell-06 Jet 316 249 269

Ranger
2 Light Schweizer S- 235 192 206
333
3 Light Bell AH-1 cobra 1100 966 1040

4 Medium Apache AH-64 3380 3088 3327

5 Medium Sikorsky uh-60 3780 2853 3073

black hawk
6 Medium Boeing ch-47 9464 4311 4656
chinook
7 Heavy MIL Mi-26 7850 6600 7111

8 Heavy Sikorsky MH- 22800 17559 18917

63
Table 5: Engine performance and power requied

Chart Title
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

ENGINE POWER [hp] ACTUAL POWER [hp]

Table 6: Actual power required to engine power at sea level

 Chart Title
35000

30000

25000

20000

15000

10000

5000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
At 5000 ft ACTUAL POWER [hp] ENGINE POWER [hp] 316

Table7: Power required curve to power of engine at 5000 ft

From table7 that as the gross weight of the helicopter increases, the power requirement

increases as more thrust is required to lift a heavier aircraft and keep it in hover. Moreover,

the actual power requirement also increases with altitude, as more power is required at 5000

ft to generate the same amount of thrust as that of the helicopter at sea level, due to the

lower density of air at 5000 ft.

From Table 1, the actual power required, calculated for both altitudes, varies greatly from

the engine power in all the helicopters. This is largely because the viscous and

compressibility effects of air on the blades were ignored in the ideal power equation which

means that the transmission losses are unaccounted for in these calculations. Other reasons

for this power mismatch maybe that the helicopters are optimized for flight conditions other

than hover, and therefore, are provided with overpowered engines. Another reason might

be that the figure of merit used in the calculations may not be an accurate figure to find the

actual power required.

Reference:

[1] Vertipedia, “Vertipedia,” 2021. [Online]. Available:

https://vertipedia.vtol.org/aircraft. [Accessed 2021].

[2] Wikipedia.com

[3] google.com
Appendex:

MATLAB Code:

clear ; clc;

Helicopter = ["Bell 206","Schweizer S-333","Bell AH-1 ","Apache AH-

64","Sikorsky UH-60","Boeing CH-47","Sikorsky MH-63","Mil Mi-26",];
Weight = [3350 2460 10000 23000 23500 33000 50000 123450] ;
DiskDia = [33 27 44 48 53.67 59.1 72 105];
RPM = [394 466 324 289 258 230 179 132];

Thrust = Weight;
rho_sealevel = 0.002377;
rho_altitude = 0.002048;
FigureMerit = 0.7;

RotarRadius = DiskDia/2;
DiskArea = ( pi / 4 ) * DiskDia.^2;
BladeRotaionalSpeed = ((2*pi)/60) * RPM;
BladeTip = BladeRotaionalSpeed .* RotarRadius;

Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel =
(Thrust)./(rho_sealevel*DiskArea.*(BladeTip.^2));
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude =
(Thrust)./(rho_altitude*DiskArea.*(BladeTip.^2));

InducedVelocity_sea = (Thrust./(2*rho_sealevel*DiskArea)).^(1/2);
InducedVelocity_altitude = (Thrust./(2*rho_altitude*DiskArea)).^(1/2);

Power_Ideal_sea = Thrust.*InducedVelocity_sea;
Power_Ideal_altitude = Thrust.*InducedVelocity_altitude;

ActualPower_sealevel = (Power_Ideal_sea ./ FigureMerit)/550;

ActualPower_altitude = (Power_Ideal_altitude ./ FigureMerit)/550;

Serial = [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9];

disp('Sr.No Helicopter GrossWeight DiskRadius

CT_sea CT_altitude Power_sea Power_altitude');

fprintf(" %d %s %15.3f %15.3f %10.3f %10.3f

%15.3f %15.3f \n ",Serial(1), Helicopter(1), Weight(1),
RotarRadius(1), Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel(1),
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude(1), ActualPower_sealevel(1),
ActualPower_altitude(1));
fprintf(" %d %s %15.3f %15.3f %10.3f %10.3f
%15.3f %15.3f \n ",Serial(2), Helicopter(2), Weight(2),
RotarRadius(2), Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel(2),
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude(2), ActualPower_sealevel(2),
ActualPower_altitude(2));
fprintf(" %d %s %15.3f %15.3f %10.3f %10.3f
%15.3f %15.3f \n ",Serial(3), Helicopter(3), Weight(3),
RotarRadius(3), Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel(3),
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude(3), ActualPower_sealevel(3),
ActualPower_altitude(3));
fprintf(" %d %s %15.3f %15.3f %10.3f %10.3f
%15.3f %15.3f \n ",Serial(4), Helicopter(4), Weight(4),
RotarRadius(4), Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel(4),
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude(4), ActualPower_sealevel(4),
ActualPower_altitude(4));
fprintf(" %d %s %15.3f %15.3f %10.3f %10.3f
%15.3f %15.3f \n ",Serial(5), Helicopter(5), Weight(5),
RotarRadius(5), Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel(5),
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude(5), ActualPower_sealevel(5),
ActualPower_altitude(5));
fprintf(" %d %s %15.3f %15.3f %10.3f %10.3f
%15.3f %15.3f \n ",Serial(6), Helicopter(6), Weight(6),
RotarRadius(6), Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel(6),
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude(6), ActualPower_sealevel(6),
ActualPower_altitude(6));
fprintf(" %d %s %15.3f %15.3f %10.3f %10.3f
%15.3f %15.3f \n ",Serial(7), Helicopter(7), Weight(7),
RotarRadius(7), Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel(7),
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude(7), ActualPower_sealevel(7),
ActualPower_altitude(7));
fprintf(" %d %s %15.3f %15.3f %10.3f %10.3f
%15.3f %15.3f \n ",Serial(8), Helicopter(8), Weight(8),
RotarRadius(8), Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel(8),
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude(8), ActualPower_sealevel(8),
ActualPower_altitude(8));
%fprintf(" %d %s %10.3f %15.3f %10.3f %10.3f
%10.3f %10.3f \n ",Serial(9), Helicopter(9), Weight(9),
RotarRadius(9), Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel(9),
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude(9), ActualPower_sealevel(9),
ActualPower_altitude(9));
%fprintf(" %d %s %10.3f %10.3f %10.3f %10.3f
%10.3f %10.3f \n ",Serial(10), Helicopter(10), Weight(10),
RotarRadius(10), Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel(10),
Thrust_Coefficient_altitude(10), ActualPower_sealevel(10),
ActualPower_altitude(10));
%fprintf(" %d %s %10.3f %10.3f %10.3f %10.3f
%10.3f %10.3f \n ",Serial(1), Helicopter, Weight, RotarRadius,
Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel, Thrust_Coefficient_altitude,
ActualPower_sealevel, ActualPower_altitude);

% Plotting
% plot(Weight,Thrust_Coefficient_sealevel)

Results: