Experimental and Numerical Study of Micro-Aerial-Vehicle Propeller Performance in Oblique Flow

Abstract

This paper presents the modeling of the performance of small propellers used for vertical takeoff and landing micro aerial vehicles operating at low Reynolds numbers and in oblique flow. The blade element momentum theory, vortex lattice method, and momentum theory for oblique flow are used to predict propeller performance. For validation, the predictions for a commonly used propeller for vertical takeoff and landing micro aerial vehicles are compared to a set of wind-tunnel experiments. Both the blade element momentum theory and vortex lattice method succeed in predicting correct trends of the forces and moments acting upon the propeller shaft, although accuracy decreases significantly in oblique flow. For the dataset analyzed here, combining the available data of the propeller in purely axial flow with the momentum theory for oblique flow and applying a correction factor for the wake skew angle results in more accurate performance estimates at all elevation angles.