Shipboard flow field simulation for helicopter-ship dynamic interface

The Dynamic Interface (DI) of helicopter and ship is the process of launching and recovering of the helicopter shipboard under certain severe circumstances such as turbulent current, ship movement, obstacles at shipboard, and the poor vision of the pilot. The typical project was JSHIP[1] (Joint Shipboard Helicopter Integration Process), chartered and sponsored by the Office of Secretary of Defense to improve the interoperability of joint forces with U.S. Navy air capable ships, trying to define a process for expanding Wind Over the Deck (WOD) flight envelopes for any ship/helicopter combination using modeling and simulation. With the rapid progress of simulation technology and turbulence theory, CFD has found its popularity in shipboard flow field simulation for DI. On the other side, new achievements in fight simulation are available to us in computers. Several fight simulation softwares, FLIGHTLAB[2][3] or GENHEL, for instance, have been tested by a good application in this area. To sum up the previous research, it can be found that there are two points being focused on. One is the importance of ship airwake fidelity[4-8], and the other is the real time simulation of DI course[9][10].