Case Study: Yamaha achieves quieter unmanned helicopter design with Hexagon co-simulation solutions

How Fluid-Structure-Acoustics co-simulation helps in the design and development of unmanned helicopters for industrial use

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. faced a challenge in designing its unmanned helicopters, as the main rotor blades were a significant source of noise pollution, particularly problematic for operations in residential areas. Tackling this through rotor speed and blade shape adjustments was complex, as these factors also heavily impacted the helicopter's overall flight performance, creating difficult design trade-offs. To address this, Yamaha partnered with vendor Hexagon to utilize its multi-physics co-simulation solutions.

The solution implemented by Hexagon involved the MSC CoSim Engine to directly couple its scFLOW, MSC Nastran, and Actran software. This Fluid-Structure-Acoustics co-simulation process allowed Yamaha to holistically analyze rotor airflow, structural deformation, and acoustic noise propagation in a single, integrated workflow. As a result, Yamaha dramatically shortened its design and development lead times by avoiding repeated cycles and gained a comprehensive understanding of performance and noise to optimize its rotor design.

Yamaha

Mizuno

Robotics Division