Study on Airfoils and Aerodynamics of High-Speed Aircraft Propeller

Abstract

To boost the aerodynamics of high-speed aircraft propellers, the lift-to-drag (L/D) ratio variation law and the Mach number contour distribution of flat-convex airfoil NACA4412, supercritical airfoil RAE2822 and thin airfoil at a high Reynolds number NACA65206 at different Mach numbers (Ma) and angles of attack (AoA) are investigated through computational fluid dynamics (CFD). After analyzing the lift and drag characteristics of the three airfoils, NACA65206 is selected to design a high-speed aircraft propeller. Then the flow field of the designed propeller is simulated through CFD, and its aerodynamic performance is calculated. The results show that NACA65206 exhibits a higher L/D ratio and gentler stall if the Mach number increases from 0.5 to 0.9. The designed propeller with NACA65206 is found to have propulsive efficiency exceeding 80% at Mach 0.6 in flight, and the value is over 75% when the Mach number in flight is 0.7. These values suggest that the high-speed aircraft propeller designed with a thin airfoil and a large back-swept angle exhibits satisfactory propulsive efficiency.