Helicopter rotor hub flows are of interest due to the problems that arise from 1)high levels of aerodynamic drag that limits top speed, 2) the rotor hub causing premature separation over the engine pylon, and 3) unsteadiness that interacts undesireably with tail control surfaces. Experimental work is ongoing at the Penn State using water tunnels to obtain proper Reynolds number scaling at laboratory model scales. This video presents a small part of this work, which qualitatively investigated the aerodynamic interactions between the rotor hub and the engine pylon. The significant effect of the rotor hub on the pylon flow was shown, demonstrating the need for further detailed measurements of these effects.
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