INVESTIGATION OF THE HUB DIAMETER EFFECT ON PROPELLER THRUST

Year 2022, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 43 - 47, 30.06.2022

Enes Coşkun Mehmet Hanifi Doğru

Abstract

With the widespread of unmanned aerial vehicles in the aviation industry, the importance of detailed examination of propellers, whose task is to provide thrust, has also increased. A propeller is a part that is formed by attaching more than one aerodynamically shaped blade to a hub and produces thrust by being rotated by a motor. The amount of thrust that is produced by a propeller depends on some parameters such as diameter, number of blades, pitch angle etc. The aim of this study is to investigate the thrust distribution along a propeller diameter section with the gradual increase of the hub diameter. Related studies show that the maximum thrust of a propeller is obtained in the region between 75% and 85% of the propeller length. In order to obtain the necessary data, numerical flow analyzes were made and the results were discussed. As a conclusion, at the very closer to the root of the propeller blade, the amount of produced thrust is considerably low compared to the near tip of propeller. Therefore, the thrust loss due to the increase of the propeller hub diameter is negligible and maximum thrust obtained in the expected region.

Keywords

Propeller, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Hub Effect, Thrust Distribution

References

• Ismail, K. A., & Rosolen, C. V. (2019). Effects of the airfoil section, the chord and pitch distributions on the aerodynamic performance of the propeller. Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, 41(3), 1-19.Stumm, W., and Melia, C.R.O. Stoichiometry of Coagulation. Jour. AWWA, 1968, 60(5):514-539.
• Haidar, M. D. F., Moelyadi, M. A., & Hartono, F. (2019, October). Design and Performance Analysis of Low Reynolds Number Propeller using Analytical Methods by Varying Blades Alpha Design. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 645, No. 1, p. 012021). IOP Publishing.
• Benini, E. (2004). Significance of blade element theory in performance prediction of marine propellers. Ocean engineering, 31(8-9), 957-974.
• Kutty, H. A., & Rajendran, P. (2017). 3D CFD simulation and experimental validation of small APC slow flyer propeller blade. Aerospace, 4(1), 10.
• Kumar, A., Krishna, G. L., & Subramanian, V. A. (2019). Design and analysis of a carbon composite propeller for podded propulsion. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference in Ocean Engineering (ICOE2018) (pp. 203-215). Springer, Singapore.
• Akturk, A., & Camci, C. (2011). A computational and experimental analysis of a ducted fan used in VTOL UAV systems. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Pennsylvania University, USA.
• Doğru, M. H., Güzelbey, İ. H., & Göv, İ. (2016). Ducted Fan Effect on the Elevation of a Concept Helicopter When the Ducted Faintail Is Located in a Ground Effect Region. Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 29(1), 04015030.
• İbrahim, G. Ö. V. Rotor Spacing and Blade Number Effect on the Thrust, Torque and Power of a Coaxial Rotor. El-Cezeri Journal of Science and Engineering, 7(2), 487-502.
• Brandt, J., & Selig, M. (2011, January). Propeller performance data at low reynolds numbers. In 49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition (p. 1255).
• Islam, M. F., & Jahra, F. (2019). IMPROVING ACCURACY AND EFFICIENCY OF CFD PREDICTIONS OF PROPELLER OPEN WATER PERFORMANCE. Journal of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering, 16(1).