Simulation and analysis of V-22 tiltrotor aircraft forward-flight flowfield

The flowfield about a wing-fuselage-nacelle configuration of the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft at a freestream Mach number of 0.345 and angles of attack ranging from 7 to 16 deg is simulated by using a multizone, thin-layer NavierStokes method. The flow conditions yield a Reynolds number of 18.2 x 10 based on the wing chord for flight at an altitude of 10,000 ft. Major flow features including the three-dimensional flow separation from viscous-vortex interactions observed experimentally are captured by the simulation. The massive separation from the wing and the fore fuselage-sponson region for flows at high angles of attack creates free vortices that pass by the rear fuselage region, including the tail section of the aircraft.