Preliminary results from a study to model the interaction aerodynamics and
aeroacoustics of the main- and tail rotor of a helicopter in subsonic flow
are presented. The configurations studied are: 1) two-bladed main- and tail
rotors in hover, and 2) a four-bladed main rotor and two-bladed tail rotor
in climbing flight. The unsteady pressure on the main- and tail rotor surf
aces is computed with an unsteady 3-D panel method with full-span free wake
simulation of the simultaneously rotating rotors. The computed pressures s
erve as input to a Ffowcs Williams Hawkings-equation based acoustic code to
evaluate the noise characteristics. For the hover configuration, the param
eters varied were the distance between the rotor axes and the sense of rota
tion of the tail rotor. Presence of the main rotor has a significant effect
on the noise directivity and noise level of the tail rotor. Noise contribu
tion of the tail rotor dominates during the climb.