Aerodynamic Analysis of Propeller for Heavy Lifting Drone Applications Using Blade Element Momentum Analysis

Abstract

Nowadays, drone technology is seen to be rapidly advancing in various fields and applications including photography, military, transportation, sports, and many more. Therefore, each drone designs require different aerodynamic requirements, which includes different types of propeller designs. By revolving and generating airflow, the propellers give drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) a lift force or thrust. This work examines the method to calculate the thrust force generated by propellers using the Blade Element Momentum Analysis which is programmed in MATLAB. This program is developed to perform the calculation of thrust and torque for a given propeller blade geometry. This investigation compares the thrust coefficient produced by different propeller designs a various rotation speeds and parameters using the extended blade element momentum theory. Five different types of propellers are analysed and simulated using the in-house MATLAB program. The effects of rotational speeds are then added to these databases. At low advance ratios compared to a generic blade element-momentum model, a considerable improvement in modelling accuracy is seen when results are compared to experimental ones. The calculation may overestimate performance by 5% to 10%.