Aerodynamic Investigation of Fixed Pitch Aircraft Propeller

Year 2024, Volume: 05 Issue: 02, 101 - 110

Erdogan Kaygan , Dogukan Dogan , Ozan Mahir Alpagut

Abstract

An investigation of fixed pitch propeller aerodynamics is described in this paper. The impetus for the work was to identify proposed propeller’s efficiency, thrust coefficient, power coefficient and pressure contours are characterized. All computational analysis were performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software called Cradle scFLOW. During the simulation process, velocity set to 60 knots (30.87 m/s) and initially RPM (Revolution per Minute) kept constant at 3100 to specify efficiency at that point. Following that RPM value was varied to achieve thrust force. According to results, with increase in advance ratio was found to raise propeller efficiency at some point and then reduction was observed in terms of efficiency due to thrust reduction. Subsequent to these investigations, obtained thrust force was compared with an experimental data. The CFD results indicated that there is a good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords

Aerodynamics, CFD simulation, Propeller, Performance Analysis, Propulsive efficiency

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