This paper presents the experimental investigation and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of the generic model of the tail rotor blades from Bell 206B helicopter. Generally, the data about airfoil characteristics of the blade have been restricted by designers due to corporate secrets or copyright. Wind tunnel tests to investigate aerodynamic characteristics of tail blade were performed in the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Low Speed Tunnel (UTM-LST). CFD simulations of the tail blade in three dimensional (3D) were also carried out (ANSYS Fluent) on the same configuration. Both the experiments and the simulation were carried out at the same airspeed, set from 15 m/s to 40 m/s with increment of 5 m/s respectively and angle of attack (AOA) was set from 0, 5, 10, 12, and 15 degrees respectively in order to verify each other. Wind tunnel tests and computed results for the lift and drag were satisfactorily comparable. The empirical equation code was developed based on the curve fitting from the experimental results. The solutions of the empirical equation had good agreement.
Department of Aeronautical, Automotive and Ocean Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
Ocean and Aerospace Engineering Research Institute, Indonesia
