Helicopter Wake Modeling and its Interaction with Pesticide Droplet Transport

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The objective of the research to be conducted under the present research grant is the development of a CFD based model of a helicopter wake for the purpose of tracking pesticide droplet
transport. The fluid velocity field, once obtained, can be used for tracking spray releases for an unlimited number of combinations of droplet size spectrum, volume flow rate, or spray boom design. Helicopters fly at low altitude and low speeds (compared to fixed wing aircraft), they often apply herbicides in the form of relatively large droplets, and they have a very strong rotor downwash that has a significant influence on droplet deposition. As a consequence, computing the trajectory of the spray droplets released from a helicopter pushes the idealized assumptions that are used in the AGDISP model to its limits and beyond. Hence the helicopter problem is an excellent application for high order modelling approaches. The computational model to be developed under this research grant will be based on the Reynolds Average Navier Stokes (RANS) formulation. Air turbulence in the wake of the aircraft will be determined using a Reynolds Stress based turbulence model (RSM).

Faculty Supervisor:

Tiger Jeans

Student:

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Clean Technology

University:

University of New Brunswick

Program:

Accelerate