Rotor wake analysis, a fundamental research of helicopter technology, has been widely applied for rotor aerodynamic analysis. This paper summarizes the research of different rotor wake models at home and abroad and reviews the development process of rotor wake methods as well as the research achievement obtained in each stage. Then, the new progress of helicopter rotor wake methods is described in detail. It includes constant circulation contours modeling method of rotor wake, pseudo-implicit relaxation iteration and time-accurate solution method, research on aerodynamic interaction characteristics of helicopter rotor/fuselage by wake method, research on the rotor blade-vortex interaction noise and interaction of coaxial rigid rotor aerodynamics by viscous vortex particle method, and application of free wake method to helicopter flight dynamics modeling. In the end, some prospects for the research of helicopter rotor wake method are put forward, which clarifies the ideas for the future development of rotor wake method.
XU Guohua, SHI Yongjie, ZHAO Qijun. New Progress in Helicopter Rotor Wake Research[J]. Transactions of Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics,2019,36(1):39-60