Abstract
Along with the emergence of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft arose the need to predict propeller performance, namely thrust and power, at unconventional free stream angles. For cases where this angle is either \(0^\circ\) (hover) or \(90^\circ\) (forward flight), it is not difficult to estimate the performance. However, in the case of long-range eVTOLs, where the free stream angle is usually in between these angles, the propeller behaves differently. Blade element theory (BET) models can account for this but are impractical due to their large number of geometric parameters. As a substitute, we present an empirical model built on wind tunnel data that uses only propeller diameter and pitch to define the geometry, while capturing the effects of free stream angle on thrust and power. Herein, we discuss the experiment used to gather data for our model, its mathematical derivation, validation against an in-house BET model, and limitations. We end with an example demonstrating how to apply the model to solve the non-trivial problem of selecting an appropriate propeller for a tiltrotor aircraft with maximum range.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for allowing us to use their Low Speed Wind Tunnel 1 facilities for the purpose of gathering data for this propeller model. Also, we would like to thank the University of Tokyo Doctoral Students Special Incentives Program for their financial support.
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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Staub, F.M. et al. (2023). A Propeller Evaluation and Selection Tool for Multicopter and VTOL Design. In: Lee, S., Han, C., Choi, JY., Kim, S., Kim, J.H. (eds) The Proceedings of the 2021 Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Aerospace Technology (APISAT 2021), Volume 1. APISAT 2021. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 912. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2689-1_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2689-1_23
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