Urban Air Mobility is an exciting alternative to traditional, ground-based forms of public transportation, promising to reduce carbon emissions, shorten commute times, and lessen ground traffic. Sizin..
Urban Air Mobility is an exciting alternative to traditional, ground-based forms of public transportation, promising to reduce carbon emissions, shorten commute times, and lessen ground traffic. Sizing the vehicles proposed to fulfill this concept is important, as minimizing their profile improves accessibility to this mode of travel. One method of accomplishing this is by shifting the rotors closer together, as with NASA’s Reference Model 2. However, when the rotors are moved close enough to overlap during flight, the flow in this intermeshing region becomes highly unsteady and complex. This investigation seeks to understand and visualize flow under these conditions, and apply this data to optimizing efficiency. Data will be gathered by placing a simplified rotorcraft model into a wind tunnel. The results will also be compared to CFD simulations conducted by NASA.
