Simulated Tiltrotor Aircraft Operation in Close Proximity to a Building in Wind and Ground-Effect Conditions

A mid-fidelity computational fluid dynamics tool called RotCFD – specifically developed to aid in rotorcraft studies – has been applied to the study of wake interactions of civil tiltrotor aircraft in the immediate vicinity of buildings, inand out-of-ground-effect, with and without winds, consistent with notional tiltrotor operations from urban vertiports. Such civil tiltrotor operations from urban vertiports could potentially enable city-center-to-citycenter commercial transport. However, in order to one day realize such civil tiltrotor operations, though, it is necessary to better understand the wake interaction and interactional aerodynamic operating environment of urban vertiports. In the early 2000’s, a series of 7-by-10 Ft. Wind Tunnel tests were conducted at NASA Ames Research Center that began to explore some of these civil tiltrotor and vertiport wake-interaction/interactionalaerodynamics issues. This study seeks to validate computation fluid dynamic predictions against these early wind tunnel experimental results and, thereby, continue exploration of this important research area.