The paper describes a series of wind tunnel tests to simulate the interaction of a main rotor tip vortex with a tail rotor. In the experiments, which were carried out in the Argyll wind tunnel of Glasgow University, a single-bladed rotor located in the tunnel's contraction was used to generate the tip vortex which travelled downstream into the working section where it interacted with a model tail rotor. The tail rotor was instrumented with miniature pressure transducers that measured the aerodynamic response during the interaction. Preliminary results, for the given conditions, suggest that the rotor blade vortex interaction is similar in form to that previously measured on a fixed, non-rotating blade.
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