Abstract
A new approach to the free wake problem for a hovering rotor has been developed. An influence coefficient solution method is used to find the rotor wake solution which is steady in a reference frame rotating with the blades. This solution scheme solves directly for the conditions of free wake equilibrium by a procedure which does not involve time stepping and the associated use of numerical damping or special convergence methods. The influence coefficient solution method was implemented into a hover wake computer program having a three-part wake model for the tip vortex.
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