Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations of the Container Express as a Helicopter Slung Load
Flow over rectangular boxes and cylinders has not been well studied, and yet has numerous practical applications. This bluff-body geometry causes immediate flow separation and periodic vortex shedding in the wake of the object, regardless of Reynolds number. This paper presents the use and verification of a CFD methodology for predicting the forces on a particular rectangular cylinder—a slung load cargo container known as a Container Express (CONEX). It presents a comparison of the numerically obtained forces to wind tunnel data for the CONEX that demonstrates ranges of validity for the simulations. These comparisons give confidence for force and moment results for CONEX and vertical stabilizer simulations. The forces and moments will be used to design a mounting system for the vertical stabilizer.