Momentum Theory

•We saw that the helicopter’s rotor

provides three basic functions:
•Generation of Lift
•Generation of propulsive force for forward
flight
•Generates forces to control attitude and
position

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 1

 Momentum Theory
• The helicopter must be able to operate in a
variety of flow regimes:
– Hover
– Climb
– Descend
– Forward flight
– Backward flight
– Any flight regime that is a combination of the
above

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 2

 Momentum Theory
• The main goal of the helicopter is it’s ability to
HOVER
• Hover is also the simplest of the flight regimes, so
it should be the easiest to model
• Although it’s the simplest flight regime it is still
complicated enough.

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 3

 Momentum Theory
• Let’s simplify our first approach and develop a
simple method capable of predicting the rotor
thrust and power

Momentum Theory

• First developed by Rankine (1895) for marine

propellers and developed further and generalized
by several other authors

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 4

 Assumptions
• Conditions in hover:
– No forward speed
– No vertical speed
– The flow field is axisymetrical
– There is a wake boundary with the flow outside this
boundary being quiescent
– The flow velocities inside this boundary can be quite
high

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 5

 Assumptions
• Momentum theory concerns itself with the global
balance of mass, momentum, and energy.
• It does not concern itself with details of the flow
around the blades.
• It gives a good representation of what is
happening from a view far away from the rotor.
• This theory makes a number of simplifying
assumptions.

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 6

 Assumptions
• Rotor is modeled as an actuator disk which adds
momentum and energy to the flow.
• Flow is incompressible.
• Flow is steady, inviscid, irrotational.
• Flow is one-dimensional, and uniform through the
rotor disk, and in the far wake.
• There is no swirl in the wake.

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 7

 Representation and notation

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 8

 Conservation of Mass
– Air inflow trough control surface 0:

– There is no inflow/outflow through the side boundaries:

– Airflow trough control surface ∞

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 9

 Conservation of Mass through the rotor
disk
– Air inflow trough the rotor disk control surface 1:

– Air inflow trough the rotor disk control surface 2:

– Since the two surfaces (A1=A2=A) are equal:

– There is no velocity jump across the rotor disk. vi is the

induced velocity at the rotor disk.

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 10

 Hover conditions
• In hover Vc→0:
– The velocity at station 0 is 0
– The velocity at the rotor is the induced velocity at the
rotor vi
– The velocity at the far field is the induced velocity at
the far field w

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 11

 Momentum and energy equations

• The momentum rate of change is equal to the applied

force:
• The work done per unit time (power) done by the rotor is
equal to the energy rate of change

• Eliminating

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 12

 Conservation of Mass through the
rotor disk
• At control surface 1:

• At control surface ∞

• And:

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 13

 Conservation of Mass

• We can reach the conclusion that:

– The far wake induce velocity is twice the induce

velocity at the disk
– The far wake area is half the rotor disk area
– In reality

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 14

 Bernoulli equation
• Consider a particle that goes from Station 0
0 to station ∞
• We can apply Bernoulli equation between:
– Stations 0 and 1,
– Stations 2 and ∞.
1 vh
• Recall assumptions that the flow is steady,
2 irrotational, inviscid.

∞ w

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 15

 Bernoulli equation
• From the previous expressions we have:

p∞

v
Disc ∆p

p∞ w
Flow field Pressure Velocity
Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 16
 Induced Velocity at the rotor disk
• We can now compute the induced velocity at the
rotor disk in terms of the thrust T
and

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 17

 Induced Velocity at the rotor disk

• And the following expression can be obtained:

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 18

 Ideal Power
• Power consumed=Energy rate flow out-Energy
rate flow in

• So:

Or in terms of the induced velocity:

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 19

 Disk Loading
• Disk loading is defined as the ratio of the thrust by
the disk area:

• The expression of the induced velocity at the rotor

can then be expressed in terms of the disk loading:

• Remember that in hover T=W

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 20

 Power Loading
• Power Loading is defined as:

• On the other hand the induced velocity at the rotor

can be obtained from:

• We can then write:

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 21

 Induced inflow ratio
• The induced velocity at the rotor can be expressed
in the following manner:

• λh is called the induced inflow ratio

• For rotating-wing aircraft it is the convention to
nondimensionalize all velocities by the blade tip
speed in hover

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 22

 Thrust coefficient
• Since the convention is to nondimensionalize the
velocities by the blade tip speed, we can define
the thrust coefficient:

• The inflow ratio can then be expressed

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 23

 Power coefficient
• The rotor power coefficient is defined as:

• Since the power is related to the rotor shaft torque

by P=ΩQ and the rotor shaft torque is defined by:

• We can conclude that CP=CQ

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 24
 Thrust and power coefficient
• The two coefficient can be related using the
momentum theory.

• Therefore

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 25

 Figure merit
• All the previous expression were calculated for an
ideal rotor in an ideal fluid
• There is the necessity to calculate the rotor
efficiency
• In 1940 Prewitt of Kellett Aircraft introduce the
Figure of Merit

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 26

 Figure of Merit
• The ideal power is calculated using the
momentum theory so we can write

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 27

 Figure of merit
• Because a helicopter spends considerable portions
of time in hover, designers attempt to optimize the
rotor for hover (FM~0.8).

• A rotor with a lower figure of merit (FM~0.6) is

not necessarily a bad rotor. It has simply been
optimized for other conditions (e.g. high speed
forward flight).

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 28

 Non Ideal effects
• Until now we have considered ideal situation
• We did not take into account situations like:
– Non-uniform inflow
– Tip losses
– Wake swirl
– Non ideal wake contraction
– Finite number of blades
• We can then take into account these factors and
compute more accurately the necessary rotor
power
Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 29
 Non Ideal effects
• First let’s correct the power coefficient using a
correction factor (induced power coefficient):

• Where κ is the induced power correction factor

• Typical value of κ is 1.15

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 30

 Non Ideal effects
• Secondly let’s take into account the blade drag:
– D is the drag per unit span
– Nb is the number of blades
– y is the blade element distance to the rotor hub
• The power necessary to overcame the blade drag
is:

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 31

 Non Ideal effects
• The drag force per unit span can be obtained using
the drag coefficient of the section profile

• It is assumed that:
– Cd0 is independent of Re and M
– The blade is not tapered or twisted

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 32

 Non Ideal effects
• The profile power is:

• With it’s associated power coefficient

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 33

 Non Ideal effects
• The rotor solidity is defined as:

• With typical values of 0.07 to 0.12

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 34

 Non Ideal effects
• The actual rotor power can then be expressed as:

• Using the modified form of the momentum theory

with the non ideal approximation for power the
rotor figure of merit can be written as:

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 35

 Induced Tip losses
• A portion of the
R
rotor near the tip
does not produce
much lift due to the
BR leakage of air from
the bottom of the
disk to the top
• We can account for
it by using a smaller
modified radius BR

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 36

 Induced Tip losses
• So the effective blade radius Re that produces lift
is smaller than the blade radius R:

• Where B<1. The effective rotor disk area is:

• Which is smaller the the actual rotor disk are by

a factor of B2.

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 37

 Induced Tip losses
• There are several propositions to calculate the
factor B:
– Prandtl theory

– Helicopters Rotor approximation

Since λi (inflow ratio) is small and in hover related to CT

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 38

 Induced Tip losses
• Empirical geometric calculations:
– Gessow & Meyers
c is the tip chord

– Sissingh

c0 is the root chord and τr is the blade tapper ratio

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 39

 Blade Loading Coefficient
• The blade loading coefficient is defined as:

– Where Ab is area of the all the blades

• The maximum realizable value is about 0.12 due
to the occurrence of blade stall

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 40

 Power Coefficient
• We have defined power loading as:

• Since
– T depends on (ΩR)2
– P depends on (ΩR)3
• To maximize PL →ΩR should be minimum

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 41

 Power Coefficient
• We have already reach to the relations:

• Using the modified momentum theory:

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 42

 Power Coefficient
• We can also write:

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 43

 Power Coefficient
• Or alternatively:

• That is

Helicopters / Filipe Szolnoky Cunha Momentum Theory in Hover Slide 44