Fluid Dynamics of Interacting Blade Tip

Vortices With a Ground Plane

Timothy E. Lee∗ J. Gordon Leishman† Manikandan Ramasamy‡

Department of Aerospace Engineering

Glenn L. Martin Institute of Technology
University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

Abstract
Experiments were conducted using flow visualization and
phase-resolved digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV)
to examine the fluid dynamic behavior of a rotor wake as
it interacted with a horizontal ground plane. The experi-
ments were conducted using a small rotor with a ground
plane that could be moved to as close as 25% of the ro-
tor radius to the rotor plane. Visualization of the rotor
wake and the wake/ground plane interactions was per-
formed by illuminating a seeded flow using a Nd:YAG
laser, phase-locked to the rotational frequency of the ro-
tor. Two-component DPIV measurements were obtained
at four rotor heights off the ground. Measurements at sev-
eral wake ages were obtained to examine the dynamic fea-
tures of the wake/surface interaction process. The results
showed that the overall downwash induced by the rotor
becomes an unsteady radial wall jet defined between the
ground plane and the rotor wake boundary. The experi-
ments have shown that the individual tip vortices create
substantial unsteady shear stresses on the ground plane,
in some cases exceeding twice the time-averaged values.
Viscous processes such as vortex straining and turbulence
appear to be significant factors in understanding fluid dy-
namics of the resulting flow near the ground. At the higher
rotor heights the vortex filaments diffuse under the action
of viscosity and turbulence before reaching the ground. At
the lower rotor heights, turbulence in the developing wall
jet quickly shears the coherent vortices, accelerating their
diffusion. Corresponding measurements of rotor perfor-
mance showed the expected reduction in rotor power re-
quired and an increase in rotor thrust for in-ground-effect
operations.
∗ Graduate
Research Assistant. telee@umd.edu
† Minta
Martin Professor. leishman@umd.edu
‡ Assistant Research Scientist. mani@umd.edu
Presented at the 64th Annual Forum of the American Helicopter
Society, Montréal, Canada, April 29–May 1, 2008.
2008
c by
the authors except where noted. Published by the AHS Interna-
tional Inc. with permission.
Nomenclature
A Rotor disk area
c Blade chord
CT Rotor thrust coefficient, = T /ρAΩ2 R2
CP Rotor power coefficient, = P/ρAΩ3 R3
Nb Number of blades
P Rotor power
r Radial distance
R Radius of blade
T Rotor thrust p
vh Hover induced velocity, = T /2ρA
ρ Flow density
σ Rotor solidity, = Nb c/πR
ψ Azimuth angle
Ω Rotational speed of the rotor
Introduction
The performance of all types of rotorcraft will be affected
by the interference of the ground or any other boundary
that may constrain the flow into the rotor or otherwise al-
ter the natural development of the rotor wake. The issue of
“ground effect” is of concern in actual flight operations as
well as in the ground testing of rotors. This rotor/surface
interference effect has long been recognized, but the de-
tailed aerodynamics at the rotor or with the developing
flow near the ground are still not fully understood. There
are many dependencies and interdependencies affecting
rotor flows in-ground-effect operation, least of all being
the effects of rotor thrust and proximity of the rotor tip
path plane to the ground. Interference effects can be ob-
tained both in hover and forward flight, but the effects are
generally strongest in the hovering state.
From a performance perspective, it is well known that
when a rotor operates in-ground-effect (IGE) its thrust
is increased for a given power supplied—see Küssner
(Ref. 1), Zbrozek (Ref. 2), Betz (Ref. 3), Knight and
Hefner (Ref. 4), Cheeseman and Bennett (Ref. 5),
Fradenburgh (Refs. 6, 7), Stepniewski and Keys (Ref. 8)

1
Figure 1: Schematics of the general behavior of the
rotor wake when operating in: (a) Hover/very-low for-
ward speed, (b) Low-speed forward flight.
and Prouty (Ref. 9). Hayden (Ref. 10) summarizes
flight test measurements using the standardized technique
of Lewis (Ref. 11). The results suggest significant effects
for rotor heights of one diameter off the ground, where
power required can be reduced by up to 30% relative to
out-of-ground-effect operation at the same thrust (i.e., at
the same aircraft weight). Most of this power reduction is
induced in nature, but there is also some small reduction in
profile power because the blades operate at slightly lower
angles of attack to produce the same thrust. Measurements
have also shown secondary dependencies on blade load-
ing, blade aspect ratio, and blade twist.
Flow visualization of rotors operating IGE have been
performed by Fradenburgh (Ref. 7), Taylor (Ref. 12),
Curtiss et al. (Refs. 14, 13), and Light and Norman
(Ref. 15). Consider the schematics shown in Fig. 1—
because the ground must always be a streamline to the
flow, the rotor wake slipstream tends to rapidly expand ra-
dially away from the rotor as it approaches the ground.
This interference effect on the rotor wake development al-
ters the induced velocity in the plane of the rotor, and so
affects the rotor thrust and power. At low forward speeds,
a region of flow recirculation can be formed upstream of
the rotor, which can increase induced power requirements
relative to hover or free-air conditions. Ground effect is
usually negligible for advance ratios greater than about
0.10 at any rotor height off the ground.
Ground interference effects are also apparent in wind
tunnel tests on rotors, where the effects of the tunnel walls
can alter the flow at the rotor. Ganzer and Rae (Ref. 16)
and Lehman and Besold (Ref. 17) have studied the ef-
fects experimentally. For tunnel dimensions that are at
least twice the diameter of the rotor, the effects of the wind
tunnel walls are small for operating advance ratios greater
than 0.1. Generally, it must always be assumed that the
effects of the tunnel walls will lead to some flow recir-
2
Figure 2: The fluid dynamics of the rotor wake
in-ground-effect is important for understanding the
problem of brownout. (Image courtesy of Optical Air
Data Systems.)
culation at lower advance ratios, making reliable free-air
measurements of rotor performance difficult or impossible
even if suitable corrections could be derived.
Besides the interference effects of the ground on ro-
tor performance, the velocity of the induced flow near
the ground may reach high enough thresholds to lift up
loose surface materials such as dirt and sand, resulting in
a problem that is known as “brownout.” Brownout can
quickly obscure the pilots field of view, and has resulted
in several helicopter accidents. Figure 2 shows how a ra-
dially and vertically expanding dust cloud is produced by
a helicopter landing over a sandy surface. The details of
the development of the dust cloud, however, is known to
differ substantially from rotorcraft to rotorcraft and with
surface type and condition. Brownout is fundamentally a
complex physical phenomenon because it can potentially
be affected by several interdependent parameters, includ-
ing but not limited to: rotor disk loading, blade loading,
number and placement of rotors, number of blades, blade
twist, blade tip shape, and fuselage shape.
Ground effect problems have received considerable at-
tention from a modeling perspective. Cheeseman and
Bennett (Ref. 5) replaced the rotor by a simple source
with a corresponding image source to simulate ground ef-
fect. Knight and Hefner (Ref. 4) and Rossow (Ref. 18)
used a similar approach but with a vortex cylinder model.
More recent studies of the flows associated with rotors
operating IGE have used both Lagrangian vortex track-
ing methods and Eularian grid-based computational fluid
dynamic (CFD) methods. Vortex wake models have
been based on potential flow theory, assuming vorticity
conservation even near the ground plane. Such invis-
cid models are described by DuWaldt (Ref. 19), Saberi
and Maisel (Ref. 20), Quackenbush and Wachspress
(Ref. 21), Graber et al. (Ref. 22), Itoga et al. (Ref. 23),
and Griffiths and Leishman (Ref. 24). While reason-
able predictions of wake behavior in hover and in forward
flight has been demonstrated, more limited success has
been achieved in correctly predicting rotor performance
IGE when compared to experimental measurements. This
reflects the inherent complexity and strongly viscous na-
ture of the flow field for IGE operations. Reynolds Av-
eraged Navier–Stokes (RANS) approaches such as that
discussed by Moulton et al. (Ref. 25) seem promising
for predicting such problems. Vorticity transport models
seem to have met with reasonable success in predicting
both ground effect aerodynamics (Ref. 26) and brownout
(Ref. 27).
The present paper describes results from an ongoing ex-
perimental study using phase-resolved digital particle im-
age velocimetry (DPIV) to examine in detail the fluid dy-
namic behavior of the rotor wake with its embedded blade
tip vortices as it interacts with a ground plane. The work
was a precursor to three-component, dual-plane, two- Figure 3: Drawing of the rotor and test stand.
phase flow measurements of rotors operating over sur-
faces covered with loose sediment. Such an understanding
is a prerequisite to better predicting the induced veloc-
ity field and performance of rotors operating in-ground-
effect, and eventually to further the understanding the
problem of “brownout.” Predictive models for brownout
are still being developed, and they require better valida-
tion of rotor aerodynamics in-ground-effect and of the
two-phase flow interactions of vortices with the sediment
bed. Ultimately, the real mechanisms responsible for par-
ticulate uplift in a non-steady turbulent flow environment
must be understood. The present work is focused on un-
derstanding using DPIV the near-wall fluid behavior as the
tip vortices interact with the radially expanding turbulent
jet flow on the ground plane.

Description of the Experiment

Rotor Setup
The experiment was conducted with a small, two-bladed
rotor in which the rotor tip-path-plane plane was mounted
parallel to a ground plane. The rotor blades were made
of composite carbon fiber, and had circular arc, cambered
airfoil sections. The radius of the blade was 86 mm, with
a uniform chord of 19 mm with no taper. No blade twist
was used. The rotor had a solidity σ of 0.14. A drawing
the rotor is shown in Fig. 3, and photograph of the rotor
and ground plane setup is shown in Fig. 4. The rotational
speed of the rotor was measured with a Hall-effect sensor
mounted on the rotor shaft, which provided a once-per-
revolution trigger signal to the data acquisition system.
The data acquisition system ensured precise phase lock-
ing to less than ±0.1 degrees.
Figure 4: Experimental setup of the rotor and the
ground plane.
The ground plane was a circular disk that was three
times the diameter of the rotor, and was painted flat black
to minimize reflections from the laser sheet. The ground
plane was mounted on a mechanical traverse so that it
could be moved to any distance from the rotor plane, and
also set to any inclination. In all of the present experi-
ments, the rotor tip-path-plane was adjusted so that it was
perfectly parallel to the ground plane.
The rotor was operated at a rotational frequency of be-
tween 35 Hz and 60 Hz, giving a maximum tip speed of
32.42 ms−1 . The nominal operating tip Mach number and
Reynolds number based on chord were up to 0.095 and
42,170, respectively.

3
Loads Balance
The rotor stand (Fig. 3) was mounted on a micro mass
balance capable of measuring the thrust with a precision
of ±0.1 grams. A linear reaction sensor was used to mea-
sure torque. The torque cell was separately calibrated by
using precision weights applied though a known arm. A
digital inclinometer was used to set the pitch angle of the
blades at the 75% span location.
At each rotational speed, torque and thrust data were
collected over a 5 second period. The rotor was also tested
at all conditions without the blades attached to the hub
to determine tares. These tares were subtracted from the
thrust and torque measurements taken with the blades at-
tached.
To guarantee measurement precision and repeatability
of the experiment, multiple tests were made at the same
pitch angles and rotational speeds. The measured thrust
was found to be within the instrument precision of the
mass balance, while the measured torque had an uncer-
tainty of ±3% of the mean value. The final balance data
were ensemble averaged, and used to find the thrust and
power coefficients.
Flow Visualization
For the flow visualization studies, a thermally produced
mineral oil fog was used as a flow tracer material. The av-
erage size of the tracer particles was about 0.20 microns in
diameter, and were determined to be small enough not to
have any significant tracking errors in the flow (Ref. 28).
Judicious adjustment of the flow rate from seeder and the
location of the outlet nozzle was required to introduce
concentrations of tracer particles at the locations needed to
clearly identify the key flow structures such as the tip vor-
tices and vortex sheets, as well as the developing boundary
layer flow on the ground.
The illumination of the flow was performed using a
Nd:YAG laser, the pulse frequency being phased synchro-
nized with the rotational frequency of the rotor. An artic-
ulated optical arm transmitted the laser light to the region
of interest. A 500 mm cylindrical lens at the end of the
arm converted the beam to a planar laser light sheet that
was approximately 1 mm thick at its waist. Flow visu-
alization images were taken with a Nikon 6.1 mega-pixel
camera with 60 mm focal length lens. The camera was
positioned so that it was exactly perpendicular to the laser
light sheet—see Fig. 5.
Many high-resolution images were taken at each rotor
operating state; only images showing all of the key fea-
tures of the wake and the interactions with the ground
plane were retained for further analysis. The phase of
the trigger signal from the rotor could be altered to cap-
ture images of the wake at different ages. i.e., at different
4
Figure 5: Schematic explaining the laser sheet and
camera setup for flow visualization and DPIV.
blade azimuth angles. The ground plane was positioned at
several ground plane distances (z/R), typically z/R = 4.0,
3.0, 2.5, 2.0, 1.75, 1.5, 1.25, 1.0, 0.9, 0.8, 0.75, 0.7, 0.6,
0.5, 0.4, and 0.25. These conditions are referred to in this
paper as the in-ground-effect (IGE) results. Baseline tests
were conducted without the ground plane present, which
are referred to as the out-of-ground effect (OGE) results.
Not all types of measurements were made at all ground
plane heights.
Digital Particle Image Velocimetry
Two-component flow measurements were made using a 2
mega-pixel CCD camera for the DPIV imaging. A 532 nm
band pass filter prevented the camera from receiving any
reflections other than the reflections from the seed par-
ticles. A relatively small region of focus (100 mm-by-
100 mm) was chosen, which required a 60 mm lens with
an f-stop of 2.8. The interrogation window size was 16-
by-16 pixels with a 50% overlap. Measurements could be
made to within a few millimeters of the ground surface, at
which point laser reflections made it difficult to perform
successful cross-correlations with the DPIV images.
DPIV imaging requires a calibration process to incor-
porate the registration of the camera and its mapping from
the object plane onto the image plane to correct for distor-
tions from variable magnification across the image. For
the present system, the single camera was mapped in the
usual way for any PIV system. A nonlinear mapping func-
tion was created from images of a calibration target. This
precision calibration target was made from regular grid of
white dots on a black anodized background. A fiducial
reference point on the target defined the origin for all the
calibration images.
For the digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) ex-
periments, the entire test area was uniformly seeded with
the tracer particles before each sequence of measure-
ments. This is in contrast to the flow visualization ex-
periments, which required concentrating tracer particles
in regions of the flow needed to clearly identify the tip
vortices, vortex sheets, and shear layers.
The correlation algorithm used for the DPIV was based
on a deformation grid correlation method (Refs. 33, 34).
This procedure is similar to the more common recursive
technique, however, in this method the second window is
deformed in that it is both sheared and translated instead
of just undergoing a simple translation—see Fig. 6. The
procedure starts with the correlation of an interrogation
window of a defined size (say, 64-by-64), which is the
first iteration. After the mean displacement of that region
is estimated, the interrogation window of the displaced
image is moved by integer pixel values for better corre-
lation in the second iteration. This third iteration starts by
moving the interrogation window of the displaced image
by sub-pixel values based on the displacement estimated
from second iteration. Following this, the interrogation
window is sheared twice (for integer and sub-pixel val-
ues) based on the velocity magnitudes from the neighbor-
ing nodes before performing a fourth and fifth iteration,
respectively.
Once the flow velocities were estimated after these five
iterations, the window was split into four equal windows
(of size 32-by-32). These windows were moved by the av-
erage displacement estimated from the final iteration (us-
ing a window size of 64-by-64) before starting the first
iteration at this resolution. This procedure was continued
until the resolution required to properly resolve the flow
field was reached. The second interrogation window was
deformed until the particles remain at the same location
after the correlation. This technique, especially the in-
troduction of shear, has been shown (Ref. 34) to be the
most appropriate for measuring the high velocity gradi-
ents found inside rotor wake flows, and especially at the
near-wall flow region for a rotor operating IGE.
Figure 6: DPIV image processing technique.
5
Spurious flow velocity vectors in the results were re-
moved using standard deviation filter, followed by median
filter, and finally by mean filter based on 5-by-5 neighbor-
ing nodes. The spurious vectors were then replaced with
interpolated vectors. Care was taken to minimize the num-
ber of interpolated vectors. 100 DPIV image pairs were
acquired at each ground plane distance and for each wake
age. Any image that had spurious vectors of more than
1% of the total was eliminated. Typically, this reduced the
total number of instantaneous velocity maps to between
93 and 95. The results were then simple phase-averaged
before further processing.
Results and Discussion
Rotor Performance Measurements
Measurements of rotor performance (thrust and power)
were made for different rotor heights off the ground. Both
the thrust and power changed during these tests because
they were made at a fixed blade pitch. From the power
polars of CT versus CP , the results were interpolated to
find the power required at a constant thrust, as well as the
thrust produced at a constant power.
Figure 7 shows the relationship between the thrust pro-
duced in-ground-effect, TIGE , to that for out-of-ground-
effect operation, TOGE , for a constant power. There was
little effect on thrust for heights of more than three ro-
tor radii, which is an expected result for any rotor based
on all prior measurements of rotor performance IGE. For
heights below one diameter, the rotor thrust increased
more rapidly, rising to as high as 1.4TOGE at z/R =
0.25R. There was some small dependency on power set-
ting within the range that could be tested, but the results
were practically the same.
Figure 7: Measurements of rotor thrust at a constant
power show a substantial increase in thrust for opera-
tion near to the ground plane.
 OGE Operation

Figure 9 shows a representative flow visualization image

Figure 8: Measurements of rotor power at a constant
thrust show a rapid decrease in power for operation
near to the ground plane.
Figure 8 shows the relationship between PIGE and POGE
for constant rotor thrust. Nearly a 40% reduction in power
was achieved at z/R = 0.25R. There was some evidence
that the results were dependent on the operating state of
the rotor, with the higher thrusts (and hence higher blade
loadings) producing a slightly more significant effect on
rotor IGE performance.
of the rotor wake for OGE operation. All of the basic fea-
tures of a hovering rotor wake are present here, including
the blade tip vortices and the turbulent vortex sheets. The
signature of the tip vortices appear as spiral bands of tracer
particles with clear voids at the vortex cores resulting from
the action of centrifugal and Coriolis accelerations on the
particles.
These vortices then convect along the slipstream bound-
ary that separate the higher velocities inside the rotor
wake from the external quiescent flow. Because a two
bladed rotor was used, successive tip vortices below the
rotor are 180 degrees of age apart. For OGE operation,
the tip vortices remained distinct (with clear tracer par-
ticle voids) until they were about three rotor revolutions
old. As expected, the was some evidence of aperiodicity
(i.e., deviations from the identical flow state from rotor
revolution-to-revolution) in the rotor wake, this being an
inherent characteristic of all types of helicoidal vortical
wakes (Ref. 29).
The presence of the turbulent sheets trailing from the

Flow Visualization

Flow visualization was conducted for both rotor out-of-

ground-effect (OGE) and rotor in-ground-effect (IGE) op-
eration. Digital images of the rotor wake and surface flow
were taken for different rotor heights and at different blade
phase angles. Judicious seeding of the flow was required
to produce the best images that most clearly identified the
key flow features, including the blade tip vortices and tur-
bulent surface wall jet. The operating conditions for the
rotor at the different heights off the ground are given in
Table 1.

z/R CT /σ CP /σ Test conditions

∞ (OGE) 0.0917 0.01569 Flow viz.
2.5 0.0916 0.01582 Flow viz.
2 0.0946 0.01607 Flow viz.
1.5 0.0997 0.01629 Flow viz., DPIV
1.25 0.1030 0.01636 Flow viz.
1 0.1067 0.01646 Flow viz., DPIV
0.75 0.1099 0.01637 Flow viz.
0.5 0.1153 0.01636 Flow viz., DPIV
0.25 0.1329 0.01679 Flow viz., DPIV

Table 1: The operating conditions for the rotor at the

different heights off the ground. Figure 9: Representative flow visualization of the rotor
wake for hover out-of-ground-effect.

6
inboard parts of the blade can also be seen in Fig. 9, these
being relatively thick because of the lower chord Reynolds
number at the blades. These vortex sheets convect axially
more quickly than the blade tip vortices, and so interact
with the older tip vortices as they age in the flow. The
inner parts of the vortex sheets remain relatively distinct
to two or three rotor revolutions. The wake further down-
stream becomes filled with the folded and merged vortex
sheets, and the tip vortices have spun down under the ac-
tion of viscosity and turbulence. As a result, the far wake
and becomes relatively turbulent overall and begins to ex-
pand slowly, eventually becoming a turbulent jet-like flow
containing fairly diffused zones of residual vorticity.
IGE Operation
In all cases, it was found that the presence of the ground
plane significantly altered the geometry of the developing
rotor wake compared to the OGE case (Fig. 9), the wake
expanding (stretching) significantly radially outward as it
approaches the ground surface. A simple schematic of the
general flow developments is shown in Fig. 10. On the
ground plane, the flow becomes a wall jet with a bound-
ary layer close to the surface and a developing shear flow
region above with significant turbulent mixing.
Figure 11 shows flow visualization results for eight ro-
tor heights above the ground plane. The images were
taken for the same blade phase and are scaled in both the
vertical and horizontal dimensions so that all the images
Figure 10: General development of the flow below the
rotor in ground effect operation.
7
can be directly compared with each other. Notice that the
wake distortion becomes particularly pronounced at the
lower rotor heights, where the wake quickly expands radi-
ally outward within the first rotor revolution after its for-
mation.
For the highest height of z/R = 2.5R, the initial devel-
opment of the wake was found to be similar to the OGE
case—compare Fig. 11(a) with Fig. 9. However, the tip
vortices were noted to be axially little closer together than
for the OGE case, and exhibited some evidence of pairing
or bundling, which is a common characteristic of wakes
with reduced helicoidal pitch and more closely spaced
vortices.
By the time that the far wake approaches the ground
plane it had already become relatively turbulent and the
tip vortices have diffused under the action of viscosity and
turbulence. The flow near the ground, therefore, becomes
a developing turbulent wall jet that is relatively free of co-
herent vortical flow structures but was notably unsteady
(aperiodic). This jet expands radially away from the rotor,
and exhibits the features of both a boundary layer and a
free shear layer. Quantification of the resulting flow veloc-
ities and the boundary layer profiles was measured using
using DPIV, which is discussed later.
Figure 11(b) shows flow visualization results for z/R =
2.0R. In this case, the older blade tip vortices (i.e., 3 rotor
revolutions old) approach the ground plane before show-
ing any evidence of spinning down and diffusing. As they
interact with the ground, the vortices undergo a stretching
process (Refs. 30, 31), which results in vorticity intensifi-
cation that counters normal diffusive behavior, at least for
a while. As a result, in this case the tracer particle void
signatures of the tip vortices were apparent in the flow vi-
sualization to about five rotor revolutions. The initial de-
velopment of the surface wall jet, therefore, is different in
that it now contains significant embedded vorticity from
the tip vortices and, to a lesser extent, additional vorticity
contributions from the vortex sheets.
Figure 11(c) shows results for z/R = 1.5R. These re-
sults are similar to the z/R = 2.0R case, but the tip vor-
tices were only visible up to about four rotor revolutions
old. There were now significantly large eddies present in
the wall surface flow. Lowering the height to z/R = 1.25R
produced significant pairing of the older vortices as they
approached the wall—see Fig. 11(d). This pairing was
periodic, the vortices spinning around each other and un-
dergoing some evidence of viscous merging as they were
sheared in the developing wall flow.
The vortex sheets trailed from the inner parts of the
blades were also more evident near the wall in this case.
The vortex sheets were seen to remain embedded inside
the developing boundary layer, at least initially. The re-
sulting wall jet for this condition seemed to have signifi-
cantly higher levels of vorticity with a variety of eddies at
 (a) Rotor height z/R = 2.5 (b) Rotor height z/R = 2.0

(c) Rotor height z/R = 1.5 (d) Rotor height z/R = 1.25

(e) Rotor height z/R = 1.0 (f) Rotor height z/R = 0.75

(g) Rotor height z/R = 0.5 (h) Rotor height z/R = 0.25
Figure 11: Flow visualization of the rotor wake for several rotor heights off the ground plane: (a) z/R = 2.5, (b) z/R
= 2.0, (c) z/R = 1.5, (d) z/R = 1.25, (e) z/R = 1.0, (f) z/R = 0.75, (g) z/R = 0.5, and (h) z/R = 0.25.

8
various scales. The resulting flow suggested the develop-
ment of a marginally thicker turbulent wall jet and shear
flow as it expanded away from the rotor.
Lowering the rotor to z/R = 1.0R off the ground showed
that the older tip vortices were now being significantly
stretched as they came into proximity with the ground—
see Fig. 11(e). In this case, the older tip vortices were ac-
tually stretched to about twice their initial length, which
obviously results in considerable vorticity intensification.
This stretching process decreases the viscous core size of
the vortices and increases their peak swirl velocities rela-
tive to those at the previous rotor revolution.
The reduction of the size of the seed void to values close
to those seen after the first rotor revolution suggests that
the stretching effect (which conserves circulation) is in-
deed a powerful mechanism in prolonging the life of the
tip vortices during their entrainment into the surface wall
jet. However, it should be noted that the seed void does
not represent the dimensions of the viscous core but sim-
ply an equilibrium position for the rotating seed particles.
Nevertheless, the presence of a seed void suggests high
vorticity and is evidence that the tip vortex is still present
in the flow. The signatures of the vortex sheets can also
be seen in the resulting sheared flow zone at the ground
surface flow, perhaps as far away as two rotor radii.
The remaining three rotor heights of z/R = 0.75R, 0.5R
and 0.25R—see Figs. 11(f), (g) and (h), respectively—are
relatively low rotor heights that would encountered with
a conventional helicopter, but nevertheless provide a use-
ful set of results in helping to understand the fundamen-
tal flow physics of rotor IGE operations. These cases all
resulted in relatively low helical spacing between succes-
sive turns of the rotor wake, and so significant tip vor-
tex pairing was produced as the wake began to interact
with the ground plane. The tip vortices are significantly
stretched soon after their formation, and appeared to dif-
fuse their vorticity at relatively young wake ages as they
interacted with the ground. The resulting flow near the
ground seemed relatively free of vorticity but was clearly
very turbulent.
DPIV Flow Field Measurements
DPIV measurements were made for four rotor heights off
the ground, namely z/R = 1.5, 1.0, 0.5 and 0.25. The
DPIV results were post-processed to obtain both phase-
averaged and time-averaged velocity vectors, and the data
were also processed in terms of velocity profiles measured
normal to the ground plane at different radial distances
from the rotational axis of rotor.
9
Time-Averaged Flow Field Results
Time-averaged velocity field results are shown in Fig. 12
in the form of flow vectors on a color-contoured back-
ground for the four rotor heights off the ground. Only
every other flow vector has been plotted in these cases
to prevent congestion. Because the rotor thrust varies
for all four IGE cases, the results shown here have been
normalized by the momentum theory factor for the av-
eragep induced velocity, i.e., by dividing by the factor
vh = T /2ρA. This approach allows the measurements
to be better compared on the basis of constant rotor thrust.
In all four cases, it is obvious that the rotor induced flow
is forced to expand radially outward as a wall jet as pre-
viously shown with the flow visualization. The quiescent
flow (blue zones) outside of the rotor wake boundary is
apparent. For z/R = 1.5, as shown in Fig. 12(a), it can be
seen that the flow velocities within the wake boundary are
relatively high (about twice as large than the value of vh ,
which is expected based on momentum theory considera-
tions). These high velocities reach out to about r/R=1.5 at
this rotor height, and thereafter drop quickly. The thick-
ness of the wall jet (including the shear layer) is about
0.2R, and the thickness slowly increases as the wake ex-
pands radially to distances beyond r/R = 1.5.
For the z/R = 1.0 rotor height case, as shown in
Fig. 12(b), the overall flow was found to be similar to
the previous IGE case, but now a much higher local-
ized flow velocity was produced at the wall for radial
stations between r/R=1.2 to 1.8. The highest flow ve-
locities exceeded 2vh and occurred at about r/R = 1.5.
Again, the surface velocities dropped off quickly beyond
r/R = 1.6 and the wall jet expanded. Continuity consider-
ations would dictate that the centerline velocities should
decrease inversely with distance in the fully developed
wall jet far away from the rotor.
For the two lowest rotor heights of z/R = 0.5 and 0.25,
as shown in Fig. 12(c) and (d), respectively, the aver-
age flow velocities might be expected to increase because
of the closer proximity of the rotor to the ground plane.
However, interestingly enough the results show that the
velocities remain relatively low (for a nominally constant
rotor thrust), the local peak velocity values actually de-
creasing from the results at the higher rotor height of z/R
= 1.0. For z/R = 0.5 there are two zones where the local
velocities exceeded 1.5vh , one at about r/R = 1.25 and the
other at about r/R = 1.85.
These results reflect the overall nonlinear effects of the
ground on the flow field, where the resulting outflow from
the rotor at the ground plane (i.e., the groundwash) de-
pends on the influence of the average rotor induced down-
wash combined with the local effects of the blade tip vor-
tices and the vortex sheets. Much of the local increase
in flow velocity near the ground seen in Fig. 12(b) is be-
 (a) Rotor height z/R = 1.5
(c) Rotor height z/R = 0.5
Figure 12: DPIV results of the time-averaged velocity field through a radial plane for different rotor heights off the
ground: (a) Rotor height at z/R = 1.5, (b) Rotor height at z/R = 1.0, (c) Rotor height at z/R = 0.5, (d ) Rotor height
at z/R = 0.25.
cause of the persistence of the tip vortices to relatively old
wake ages as a direct result of vortex stretching effects—
see Figs. 11d and (e).
At the higher rotor heights the vortex filaments spin
down and diffuse under the action of viscosity and tur-
bulence before they can ever reach the ground; at the
lower rotor heights the turbulence in the developing wall
jet quickly shears the vortices, which causes them to lose
their coherent flow structures within only 1.5 rotor revolu-
tions of wake age. It is these two competing mechanisms
that suggest that for any rotor there will be some interme-
diate rotor height off the ground where the groundwash
velocities will reach a maximum. This height will depend
on the average downwash (a thrust and/or disk loading ef-
fect) produced by the rotor, the strength of the tip vortices
(a blade loading effect for a constant tip speed), and the
10
(b) Rotor height z/R = 1.0
(d) Rotor height z/R = 0.25
number of blades (i.e., the number of vortices reaching
the ground per unit time).
Phase-Averaged Flow Field Results
Phase-averaged velocity field results are shown in Fig. 13
for a rotor height of z/R = 1.0R. These images represent
a snapshot of the flow field for different blade positions.
From the sequence of images, it can be seen how the tip
vortices convect along the slipstream boundary and into
the developing boundary layer flow at the ground plane.
Notice that distinguishable vorticity exists even after
the vortices become several rotor revolution old and have
begun to interact with the developing turbulent flow on
the ground. It is apparent that the action of the wall jet
velocity, as well as the turbulent wake sheets and other
 (a) Phase angle = 0◦ (b) Phase angle = 30◦

(c) Phase angle = 60◦ (d) Phase angle = 90◦

(e) Phase angle = 120◦ (f) Phase angle = 150◦

Figure 13: Phase-averaged velocity field for z/R = 1.0: (a) Phase angle = 0◦ ,
(b) Phase angle = 30◦ , (c) Phase angle =
◦ ◦ ◦ ◦
60 , (d) Phase angle = 90 , (e) Phase angle = 120 , and (f) Phase angle = 150 .

turbulence in the developing flow, begins to shear the vor- velocities near the ground with considerable fluctuations
tices. The vorticity contained in the vortices, therefore, as each vortex sweeps by.
quickly becomes more diffused. Nevertheless, it is appar- As previously mentioned, at higher rotor heights the
ent that closer to the rotor the vortices induce high local vortex filaments undergo diffusion before they reach the

11
 (a) Rotor height z/R = 1.5 (b) Rotor height z/R = 1.0

(c) Rotor height z/R = 0.5 (d) Rotor height z/R = 0.25
Figure 14: Phase-averaged velocity field for different rotor heights off the ground at a phase angle of 0◦ : (a) Rotor
height at z/R = 1.5, (b) Rotor height at z/R = 1.0, (c) Rotor height at z/R = 0.5, (d ) Rotor height at z/R = 0.25.

(a) Phase angle = 0◦ (b) Phase angle = 30◦

(c) Phase angle = 60◦ (d) Phase angle = 90◦

(e) Phase angle = 120◦ (f) Phase angle = 150◦

Figure 15: Detail of the tip vortex pairing and shearing in the developing flow near the ground flow.

12
ground, so their effect on the development of the wall jet
is relatively small. As the rotor height from the ground
plane is lowered however, the tip vortices begin to reach
the ground before they spin down and so begin to induce
higher local mean surface velocities as well as higher ve-
locity fluctuations in the flow—see the sequence in Fig. 14
and compare with the time-averaged results in Fig. 12.
If the vortices reach the ground, then they are stretched
radially, which increases their core vorticity and induced
velocities—see Figs. 14(a) and (b). The persistence of the
vortices to four or five rotor revolutions has already been
noted in Fig. 11(b).
Figures 14(c) and (d) show that at the lower rotor
heights off the ground, the tip vortices are sheared as they
enter the wall jet. This shearing action quickly diffuses
vorticity, and the signatures of the vortices are only appar-
ent for up to two rotor revolutions. Nevertheless, at the
lowest rotor height the wall jet is seen to contain signifi-
cant fluctuating velocities and turbulence.
The process is detailed in Fig. 15, which shows DPIV
results at the ground plane for a series of increasing times.
Notice that the vortices begin to pair and merge, but are
also sheared in the developing flow. The merging results
in some locally high induced velocities on the surface, but
these are also diminished by the shearing action. The net
effect is a zone of residual vorticity within the developing
wall jet that produces significant velocities at the wall.
Time-Averaged Surface Velocity Profiles
The DPIV results were further processed to extract time-
averaged radial velocity profiles as a function of distance
normal to the ground surface for several rotor heights off
the ground. Measurements at six radial stations at r/R =
0.8, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 and 2.0 were examined. It was
found that developing jet-like flow near the ground takes
on the features of both a turbulent boundary layer and a
shear region, as shown in the schematic in Fig. 16.
Figure 16: The jet-like flow at the ground exibits the
features of a thin turbulent boundary layer at the sur-
face and a shear region above.
13
The boundary layer region is relatively thin, typically
only a few millimeters or less than 5% of rotor radius. The
small thickness of the boundary layer poses some chal-
lenges for the DPIV because of the need for a very fine
spatial resolution near the surface while also minimizing
laser reflections from the surface. The results show that
measurements are feasible well into the boundary layer
and that its profile can be properly resolved using DPIV.
Directly below the rotor, as shown in Fig. 17(a), the ra-
dial flow has already become established, and by r/R =
1.0 (Fig. 17(b)) the wall jet has already become well de-
veloped. Notice that the highest surface flow velocities are
obtained for a rotor height of z/R = 1.0. It is these veloc-
ities and velocity gradients that are responsible for shear-
ing the flow in the tip vortices. Moving radially outwards
(Fig. 17(c) through (f)), the wall jet becomes thinner and
reaches its peak velocity at about r/R = 1.5. Thereafter,
the peak velocity decreases and the boundary layer be-
comes slightly thicker.
Phase-Averaged Surface Velocity Profiles
Phase-averaged velocity profiles for a rotor height of z/R
= 1.0 are shown in Fig. 18. Notice in these cases, that the
signatures of the convecting tip vortices are apparent, at
least up to about r/R = 1.25. The largest unsteady fluctua-
tions near the ground plane occur at r/R = 1.0, where there
are local excursions of about 50% from the time-averaged
values. The swirl velocity induced by the tip vortex inside
the wall jet is in the same direction as the groundwash ve-
locity and results in overall augmentation of the local flow
velocities near the surface.
This mechanism of how the wake interacts with the
ground is important because it will affect the wall shear
stress and so, ultimately, the “brownout” problem alluded
to in the introduction of this paper through the changes to
the local thresholds that will govern the uplift of particles.
Underestimation of the overall decay rate of a blade tip
vortex, for instance, will result in increased entrainment
of loose surface sediment, and more extended regions of
sediment lift-up. The mechanisms of shear and turbulent
diffusion, however, will likely increase the mixing of any
particles near the ground, again affecting the number of
particles that are lofted into the flow. The shear fluctu-
ations on the ground clearly become much smaller with
increasing radial distance from the rotor.
Figure 19 shows the near-wall phase-averaged velocity
profiles for a rotor height of z/R = 1.0. In this case, re-
sults are for the zone within 0.4 rotor radius (i.e., 34.4 mm
or 1.35 inches) off the ground plane. The flow could be
measured successfully down to about 0.015 radius (i.e.,
1.29 mm or 0.051 inches) from the ground plane, at which
point surface reflections of the laser light (even from a
matt-black surface) made it difficult to perform successful
 (a) r/R = 0.8 (b) r/R = 1.0

(c) r/R = 1.25 (d) r/R = 1.5

(e) r/R = 1.75 (f) r/R = 2.0

Figure 17: Time-averaged velocity profiles measured using DPIV at various radial distances from the rotor: (a) r/R
= 0.8, (b) r/R = 1.0, (c) r/R = 1.25, (d) r/R = 1.5, (e) r/R = 1.75, (f) r/R = 2.0.

cross-correlations on the DPIV images. Conclusions

Notice that the profiles near the ground show the fea-
tures of a wall jet, with the boundary layer flow being rel-
atively thin. The boundary layer thickness was estimated
in each case by using the location where the surface ve-
locity reached its peak, the results of which are shown in
Fig. 20. Notice that the boundary layer becomes thinner
moving away from the rotor. While the initial thickness
depends on the rotor height off the ground, the final thick-
ness is the same in each case.
Experiments have been conducted using flow visualiza-
tion and phase-resolved digital particle image velocime-
try (DPIV) to examine the fluid dynamic behavior of
a rotor wake, with its embedded blade tip vortices and
vortex sheets, as it interacted with a horizontal ground
plane. Two-component DPIV measurements were ob-
tained at four rotor heights off the ground, and allowed
the quantification of the flow within a few millimeters of
the ground surface. Measurements at several wake ages
were also obtained to examine the dynamic features of the

14
 (a) r/R = 0.8 (b) r/R = 1.0

(c) r/R = 1.25 (d) r/R = 1.5

(e) r/R = 1.75 (f) r/R = 2.0

Figure 18: Phase-averaged velocity profiles measured using PIV at various radial distances for a rotor height of z/R
= 1.0: (a) r/R = 0.8, (b) r/R = 1.0, (c) r/R = 1.25, (d) r/R = 1.5, (e) r/R = 1.75, (f) r/R = 2.0.

wake/surface interaction process. wash induced by the rotor is forced to escape as a jet
The following conclusions have been drawn from the between two boundaries defined by the ground plane
work: and the wake boundary, the latter which at least ini-
tially is defined by the path of the tip vortices. As
1. Measurements of rotor performance showed the a re-
the vortices age in the flow, the wake boundary be-
duction in rotor power required for a constant thrust
comes much less distinct as it mixes with the devel-
and an increase in the rotor thrust for a constant
oping flow on the ground and produces a shear zone.
power during in-ground-effect operations. These re-
sults are typical for any hovering rotor operating in
3. DPIV measurements of the flow were successfully
ground effect, and do not appear to be affected sub-
made near the ground plane, and down to about 1.5%
stantially by scale.
of the rotor radius. The resulting flow velocity at the
2. Flow visualization suggests that the overall down- ground plane closely resembled the form of a classic

15
 (a) r/R = 0.8 (b) r/R = 1.0

(c) r/R = 1.25 (d) r/R = 1.5

(e) r/R = 1.75 (f) r/R = 2.0

Figure 19: Near-wall phase-averaged velocity profiles at various radial distances for a rotor height of z/R = 1.0: (a)
r/R = 0.8, (b) r/R = 1.0, (c) r/R = 1.25, (d) r/R = 1.5, (e) r/R = 1.75, (f) r/R = 2.0.

wall jet, which shows the characteristics of a turbu-
lent boundary layer very near the wall and a shear
flow away from the wall.
4. At the higher rotor heights the vortex filaments spin
down (diffuse) under the action of viscosity and tur-
bulence before they can reach the ground. At the
lower rotor heights the turbulence in the develop-
ing wall jet quickly shears the vortices, which causes
them to diffuse quickly.
5. In some cases, pairing and merging of the blade tip
vortices occurred near the ground. However, the vor-
tices were also sheared in the developing wall jet.
The residual velocity field was still sufficient to in-
duce significant fluctuating shear on the wall.
6. The competing flow mechanisms (diffusion, stretch-
ing and shearing) suggest that there will be some in-
termediate rotor height off the ground where the sur-
face flow (groundwash) velocities will reach a maxi-
mum. This height will depend on the average down-
wash (a disk loading effect) produced by the rotor,
the strength of the tip vortices (a blade loading ef-
fect), and the number of blades.

16

Figure 20: Measurements of the radial development
of the boundary layer thickness as a function of rotor
height off the ground.
Acknowledgments
This research was partly supported by the Army Research
Office (ARO) under grant W911NF0610394 and partly
by the Multi-University Research Initiative under Grant
W911NF0410176. Additional support for the first author
was provided by the Minta Martin Aeronautical Fund.
References
1 Küssner,H. G., “Helicopter Problems,” NACA TM
827, January 1937.
2 Zbrozek,
J., “Ground Effect on the Lifting Rotor,”
British ARC R & M 2347, 1947.
3 Betz,
A., “The Ground Effect on Lifting Propellers,”
NACA TM 836, 1937.
4 Knight,
M. and Hefner, R. A., “Analysis of Ground Ef-
fect on the Lifting Airscrew,” NACA TN 835, 1941.
5 Cheeseman, I. C. and Bennett, W. E., “The Effect of the
Ground on a Helicopter Rotor in Forward Flight,” ARC R
& M 3021, 1955.
6 Fradenburgh, E. A., “The Helicopter and the Ground
Effect Machine,” Journal of the American Helicopter So-
ciety, Vol. 5, (4), 1960, pp. 26–28.
7 Fradenburgh, E. A., “Aerodynamic Factors Influencing
Overall Hover Performance,” AGARD-CP-111, 1972.
8 Stepniewski, W. Z. and Keys, C. N., Rotary-Wing Aero-
dynamics, Dover Publications, New York, NY. Part II,
Chapters 2 and 3, 1984.
17
9 Prouty, R. W., “Ground Effect and the Helicopter,”
AIAA Paper 85-4034, AIAA/AHS/ASEE Aircraft Design
Systems and Operations Meeting, Colorado Springs, CO,
October 14–16, 1985.
10 Hayden, J. S., “The Effect of the Ground on He-
licopter Hovering Power Required,” 32th Annual Na-
tional V/STOL Forum of the American Helicopter Soci-
ety, Washington DC, May 10–12, 1976.
11 Lewis, R. B., “Army Helicopter Performance Trends,”
Journal of the American Helicopter Society, Vol. 17, (2),
1972, pp. 15–23.
12 Taylor, M. K., “A Balsa-Dust Technique for Air-Flow
Visualization and Its Application to Flow through Model
Helicopter Rotors in Static Thrust,” NACA Technical
Note 2220, 1950.
13 Curtiss,H. C., Erdman, W., and Sun, M., “Ground Ef-
fect Aerodynamics,” Vertica, 11 (1/2), 1987, pp. 29–42.
14 Curtiss, H. C., Sun, M., Putman, W. F., and Hanker,
E. J., “Rotor Aerodynamics in Ground Effect at Low Ad-
vance Ratios,” Journal of the American Helicopter Soci-
ety, Vol. 29, (1), 1984, pp. 48–55.
15 Light,J. S. and Norman, T., “Tip Vortex Geometry of
a Hovering Helicopter Rotor in Ground Effect,” 45th An-
nual Forum of the American Helicopter Society, Boston,
MA, May 22–24, 1989.
16 Ganzer, V. M. and Rae, W. H., “An Experimental Inves-
tigation of the Effect of Wind Tunnel Walls on the Aero-
dynamic Performance of a Helicopter Rotor,” NASA TN
D-415, 1960.
17 Lehman, A. F. and Besold, J. A., “Test Section Size
Influence on Model Helicopter Rotor Performance,” US-
AAVLABS TR 71-6, 1971.
18 Rossow, V. J., “Effect of Ground and/or Ceiling Planes
on Thrust of Rotors in Hover,” NASA Technical Memo-
randum 86754, 1985.
19 DuWaldt, F. A., “Wakes of Lifting Propellers (Rotors)
in-ground-effect,” Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, Re-
port CAL No. BB-1665-S-3, November 1966.
20 Saberi,H. A. and Maisel, M. D., “A Free-Wake Rotor
Analysis Including Ground Effect,” 43rd Annual Forum
of the American Helicopter Society, St. Louis, MO, May
18–20, 1987.
21 Quackenbush, T. R. and Wachspress, D. A., “Enhance-
ments to a New Free Wake Hover Analysis,” NASA CR
177523, April 1989.
 22 Graber, A., Rosen, A., and Seginer, A., “An Investi- 33 Scarano, F., “Iterative Image Deformation Methods

gation of a Hovering Rotor in Ground Effect,” Proceed- in PIV,” Measurement Science and Technology, Vol. 13,
ings of the 16th European Rotorcraft Forum, Glasgow, 2002, pp. R1–R19.
September 18–20, 1990. 34 Ramasamy, M., and Leishman, J. G., Benchmarking
23 Itoga,N., Nagashima, T., Iboshi, N., Kawakami, S., Particle Image Velocimetry with Laser Doppler Velocime-
Prasad, J. V. R., and Peters, D. A., “Numerical Anal- try for Rotor Wake Measurements, AIAA Journal, Vol. 45,
ysis of Ground Effect for a Lifting Rotor Hovering at (11), November 2007, pp. 2622–2633.
Close Proximity to Inclined Flat Surface,” American He-
licopter Society Specialists’ Meeting on Advanced Heli-
copter Technology and Disaster Relief, Gifu, Japan, April
21–23, 1999.
24 Griffiths,
D. A., Ananthan, S., and Leishman, J. G.,
“Predictions of Rotor Performance in Ground Effect Us-
ing a Free-Vortex Wake Model, Journal of the American
Helicopter Society, Vol. 49, (3), October 2005.
25 Moulton,M., O’Malley, J. A., and Ranjagopalan, G.,
“Rotorwash Prediction Using an Applied Computational
Fluid Dynamics Tool,” 60th Annual Form of the American
Helicopter Society, Baltimore, MD, June 7–10, 2004.
26 Brown, R. and Whitehouse, G., “Modelling Rotor
Wakes in Ground Effect,” Journal of the American He-
licopter Society, Vol. 49, (3), October 2004, pp. 238–249.
27 Philips,
C., and Brown, R., “Eulerian Simulation of the
Fluid Dynamics of Helicopter Brownout,” 64th Annual
Forum Proceedings of the American Helicopter Society
International, Montréal Canada, April 29–May 1, 2008.
28 Leishman, J. G., “On Seed Particle Dynamics in
Tip Vortex Flows,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 33, (4),
July/August 1996, pp. 823–825.
29 Bhagwat, M. J. and Leishman, J. G., “Stability Analy-
sis of Helicopter Rotor Wakes in Axial Flight, Journal of
the American Helicopter Society, Vol. 45, (3), July 2000,
pp. 165–178.
30 Ananthan, S., Leishman, J. G., and Ramasamy, M.,
“The Role of Filament Stretching in the Free-Vortex Mod-
eling of Rotor Wakes,” American Helicopter Society 58th
Annual National Forum, Montréal, Canada, June 11–13,
2002.
31 Ramasamy, M., and Leishman, J. G., “The Interdepen-
dence of Straining and Viscous Diffusion Effetcs on Vor-
ticity in Rotor Flow Fields,” American Helicopter Society
59th Annual National Forum Phoenix, Arizona, May 6–8
2003.
32 Leishman,J. G., “On the Aperiodicity of Helicopter
Rotor Wakes, Experiments in Fluids, Vol. 25, 1998,
pp. 352–361.

18