Vorcat wins STTR Phase I award from the US Air Force to extend its capabilities to eVTOL flight Safety & Controllability
Vorcat, Inc. is pleased to announce that its US Air Force (USAF), STTR Phase I proposal titled “A study of eVTOL safety and controllability using Vorcat and HAMSTR CFD,” has been selected for an award. This project, in partnership with the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center, Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland (UMD), will examine the feasibility of using Vorcat’s implementation of a grid-free vortex method coupled with the HAMSTR near-body flow solver to provide accurate simulations of the flow over modern, multirotor, electrified Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles. The combination of these codes will result in a reliable Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool with the capability to accurately simulate rotorcraft aerodynamics over a large set of flight conditions without resorting to turbulence modeling. When used in the design process, VORCAT’s ability to accurately simulate the correct flow conditions will lead to safer and better controlled eVTOL vehicle resulting in an improved design, minimization of the cost and risk involved in flight tests and ultimately commercial operation. Our improved CFD software may also be used in the design of realistic flight simulators for pilot training that would further enhance safety, and potentially to improve active vehicle control and autonomous e-VTOL flight software.
The project is motivated by the unique capabilities of the Vorcat code in efficiently capturing the physics of complex turbulent flows by using vortical elements to represent the vortices that lie at the heart of turbulent fluid motion. This (Phases I and II) study will examine the potential benefits gained from coupling the UMD HAMSTR technology with the Vorcat technology: the idea is to take advantage of the strengths of both codes – the former applied to near-body flow and the latter to the turbulent flow away from the body – so as to yield a superior computing capability to model the entire flow field.
This project aims at producing a revolutionary computational methodology that is fast, reliable, and accurate for predicting complex high Reynolds number, turbulent flows associated with advanced, frequently “outside-the-box” eVTOL aerodynamic designs.
This project brings to the USAF a means for circumventing the persistent limitations of traditional turbulence modeling that have delayed or prevented progress across a spectrum of innovative flow technologies. Applications include design innovations without heavy reliance on corroborating physical tests, e.g., Urban Air Mobility eVTOL vehicles, including those used for rescue and delivery missions, and development of advanced technologies that rely on accurate flow simulations, (e.g., aeroelasticity, flight simulations, air traffic control, and aeroacoustics, etc.) By providing flight simulators and autonomous piloting software with accurate data for complex scenarios, safety and controllability can be enhanced and better understood. Other verticals that can benefit from this R&D project are: (i) Renewable Energy through assessment of innovative hydro- and wind turbine concepts; optimal placement of wind turbines in wind farms; and noise analysis of wind farms; (ii) Automotive, including aerodynamics (and aeroacoustics) analysis of automotive shapes, simulations of automotive subsystems (HVAC, under carriage flows), and more.
Vorcat, Inc.’s overarching goal is to provide its various capabilities in the form of Apps in the HPC cloud. The proposed technology will be ported to the HPC cloud and offered on a “pay per play” basis. It will be easy to use and benefit a large number of users from academia, as well as small and medium sized businesses, who cannot afford to pay for expensive annual licenses, don’t have access to supercomputers, or do not have the expertise to employ complicated CFD software sold by our competitors.