Two dimensional numerical simulation of cycloidal propellers with flat plate airfoil in hovering status

Abstract

The cycloidal propellers for MAV scale cyclogyro with flat plate airfoil in hovering status are studied in this paper. The results from CFD computation and the experiments match well. The CFD simulation is based on moving mesh and RANS. CFD simulation indicates that there are leading edge vortex and trailing edge vortex due to blade dynamic stall. Intense interaction between the vortices shed from upstream blade and the downstream blade is observed. The interaction will either cause the drop in the force coefficients or induce upwash on the downstream blade and enhance the leading edge vortex. The leading edge vortex then results in large force coefficient peaks. The interaction between the shed vortices and downstream blade also can delay the stall of the blade which is beneficial to the thrust generation.