Performance and Mission Calculation

A.1 Introduction
In the main body of the book, methods have been described which enable the calculation of
the power necessary to allow a helicopter to operate at a given weight and at a given speed.
The results of these calculations, when combined with appropriate engine data, enable the
fuel consumption to be determined and a mission can then be flown in a computer. The
ability to perform these calculations now enables a project study to be carried out on a
proposed helicopter design. The purpose of this appendix is to collate the various theories of
the momentum/actuator disc into an overarching calculation scheme. Earlier chapters
highlighted the fact that momentum theories are the simplest available and, in order to make
the results more realistic, a scheme of factoring will be required. The simplicity of these
methods makes them easy to implement but, in addition, prevents them from being used for
calculations where the rotor is operating close to any limitations of the flight envelope. For
normal operations, this limitation should not be necessary and the simplicity of these methods
will permit parametric studies to be performed with speed and economy. The modern
personal computer, and the software available, make these methods, described in this
appendix, readily implementable.
In this way, an overall picture of the proposed helicopter configuration and its ability to
complete a given mission can be readily assessed.
The following sections describe the practical use of these methods of determining the power
required and the consequent rate of fuel consumption for a helicopter of given weight and
speed. The calculations use the momentum method and, because of this, should only be used
for a general investigation of helicopter performance. They are unsuitable for investigating
helicopter performance when the aircraft is approaching its flight envelope. The methods,
as presented, are formulated for a single main and tail rotor configuration. However, because
of their inherent simplicity, they may readily be adapted for other rotorcraft configurations
such as the tandem.
The description of the various methods is arranged in separate sections. Each section deals
with a particular aspect of the helicopter.

A summary of the components of the calculation is:
1. Using the helicopters drag and weight to determine the attitude of the main rotor disc and
the thrust by balancing the force components.
2. Determination of the main rotor, induced, profile and parasite powers implementing the
appropriate factors. These powers are summed to give the total power required to drive the
main rotor.
3. The main rotor power is then converted to the equivalent torque which fixes the value of
the tail rotor thrust necessary to trim the helicopter in yaw.
4. With the tail rotor thrust and forward speed now determined, again implementing
appropriate factors, the induced and profile powers of the tail rotor can then be calculated
(note: no parasite power).
5. The total helicopter power required can then be determined by summing the main and tail
rotor powers together with that required to drive auxiliary services.
6. The losses in the transmission are then included as a multiplying factor which gives the
power required of the engine(s).
A.2 Glossary of Terms
The nomenclature used in the following sections is presented in Tables A.1 and A.2.
A.3 Overall Aircraft
The initial calculation is of the helicopter drag which, together with the weight, will allow the
thrust and forward tilt of the main rotor to be determined.


Drag can be specified in several ways; however, the method described here uses the drag
force at a reference speed of 100 units (D100) at ISA sea-level air density as a basis. (This
calculation can be readily adapted to any other specification of drag.) The drag of the
helicopter
is then calculated by factoring the D100 value with the square of the forward speed and
linearly
with respect to the air density, as follows:


A.3.1 Main Rotor
A.3.1.1 Calculate Main Rotor Thrust and Disc Attitude
The force balance diagram for the main rotor is shown in Figure A.1.
Resolving vertically:

Resolving horizontally:



Figure A.1 Calculation of main rotor disc tilt and thrust

From these we obtain for the disc tilt:


The main rotor thrust, with the application of blockage, becomes:

Rotor blockage represents the download on the fuselage due to the rotor downwash and is
applied to the main rotor thrust as a multiplying factor using the BM factor.
The induced velocity of the main rotor can now be determined. Since actuator disc theory is
being used, the advance ratio components parallel to and normal to the main rotor disc plane
are
needed together with the thrust coefficient.
The advance ratio is defined by:

Resolving parallel to the rotor disc:

Resolving perpendicular to the rotor:


A.3.1.2 Calculate Main Rotor Downwash
With the advance ratio components evaluated, the main rotor downwash can now be
calculated
using the iterative technique described in an earlier chapter:



A good starting value, for the iteration, is that for hover, namely:

This now determines the downwash iM.