Computational Modeling of the CH-47 Helicopter in Hover

This paper describes installed rotor performance computations for the CH-47 Chinook tandem-rotor helicopter. The computations were performed with a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes flow solver using overset structured grids to resolve the flow around the rotors, the fuselage, and the resulting rotor wake system. The calculations model all six rotor blades discretely while resolving the rotor motions relative to the fuselage in a time-accurate manner. The computational performance predictions are compared to Boeing flight test data and show good agreement with the experimental measurements. In addition, the computational results provide a wealth of data on the interactions between the rotor wake system and the fuselage that can't be easily obtained in any other way.