Master's Thesis

Aerodynamic Interaction in a Three Rotor Tandem Configuration

Jaime Joaquín González Pérez2022

Key information

Authors:

Jaime Joaquín González Pérez (Jaime Joaquín González Pérez)

Supervisors:

Filipe Szolnoky Ramos Pinto Cunha (Filipe Szolnoky Ramos Pinto Cunha); José Raul Carreira Azinheira (José Raul Carreira Azinheira)

Published in

10/10/2022

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the impact of several parameters (rotor diameter, interaxial and interplanar separations and rotation speed) on the performance of partially overlapping tandem rotor configurations. It is pretended to contribute to the development of alternative drone configurations with the attained results, in particular to tandem configurations present in drones with two rotor planes. An outline of Momentum Theory is presented as a first-approximation analysis of isolated rotors, along with an existing adaptation of the theory for tandem-rotor configurations accounting for the rotor interaction. A modification of this model is proposed so that it also takes in regard the interplanar separation other than the interaxial distance. A testing bench originally developed for the study of coaxial configurations for two small rotors has been adapted for the study of tandem configurations of up to three rotors. The instruments are capable of measuring the thrust and torque produced by them, and the calibration of the setup was verified with performance data provided by the manufacturer and with CFD simulations data. Several CFD simulations were carried out with CAD models which highly resemble the original propellers. The rotor interaction was successfully captured in regard to thrust loss. The downstream rotor performance was found to be very sensitive to the interaxial separation and to the upstream rotor angular velocity, while the upstream rotor diameter variation had an intermediate impact and the effect of the interplanar separation was slight.

Publication details

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Supervisors of this institution:

Fields of Science and Technology (FOS)

mechanical-engineering - Mechanical engineering

Publication language (ISO code)

eng - English

Rights type:

Embargo lifted

Date available:

07/20/2023

Institution name

Instituto Superior Técnico