Wing-Propeller Interaction

Nikola Zizkovsky,Jan Klesa,S Pantelakis,C Charitidis

doi:10.1051/matecconf/201930402019

Abstract

Paper describes the effect of the distributed electric propulsion system (DEP) on the aerodynamic characteristics of the airplane wing. Using CFD simulation is described the influence of the wake of the propeller on the wing for various ratios of the propeller diameter to the wing chord. Unlike the normal case of wing-propeller interaction, periodic boundary conditions are used, i.e. a rectangular wing with infinite span with propellers installed periodically its span is considered. A wind tunnel experiment will be used to verify the calculations. Propeller thrust is set to compensate for airplane drag in horizontal flight, i.e. equal to the wing segment drag, which is increased by the corresponding part of the expected drag of other parts of the airplane. The increase of the drag was determined by the aerodynamic design of a generic airplane with DEP. The benefit of the work are the input data usable for the conceptual design of the airplane wing with DEP.

Highlights

Distributed electric propulsion (DEP) represents modern direction of research
The main idea is to use accelerated air flow behind propellers for lift increase during take-off and landing. This leads to the smaller wing area and to the higher efficiency in cruise
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation is used for wing-propeller interaction analysis

Summary

Introduction

The main idea is to use accelerated air flow behind propellers for lift increase during take-off and landing. This leads to the smaller wing area and to the higher efficiency in cruise. Standard DEP concepts use many small propellers in front of wing leading edge [1]. This is used e.g. at X-57 Maxwell experimental aircraft, see [2] or EcoPulse project, see [3]. See [4], should have vertical take off and landing characteristics (VTOL) and uses many small fans on the wing upper surface near the trailing edge. NASA has done research in the field of DEP physics and the interaction of the wing and propeller (see [5,6,7,8,9])

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Conclusion