Numerical and experimental investigations of the propeller characteristics of an electrically powered ultralight aircraft

Abstract

The performance and efficiency of a propeller is crucial for electrically powered propulsion systems. Since the energy of the batteries is limited, it is important to develop propellers with high efficiency. Therefore, numerical and experimental investigations of the propeller characteristics are performed. The wind tunnel experiments are performed on a fuselage–propeller configuration. The electrical motor, batteries, and control units are designed to be integrated in the fuselage. Furthermore, force measurements are conducted to provide a data base for the validation of the numerical results. Two different numerical approaches are presented. First, the propeller is fully resolved by applying a rotational domain and a sliding mesh interface. Second, an actuator disk approach including blade element theory with a panel method one-way coupled with a boundary layer integration method is presented. The latter shall be used to reduce computational and mesh generation costs. The thrust, efficiency as well as pressure distribution and the flow field downstream of the propeller are analyzed. The obtained numerical results show a good agreement with the experimental data for the integral values over a wide operating range. Moreover, the results of the inter-method comparison of the two numerical approaches are in a good accordance regarding the local effects for the two highlighted operating points.