Numerical investigation of configuration with optimum swirl recovery for propeller propulsion systems

Numerical investigation of configuration with optimum swirl recovery for propeller propulsion systems

Li, Q. (TU Delft Flight Performance and Propulsion)
Liu, Xinyuan (Student TU Delft)
Eitelberg, G. (TU Delft Flight Performance and Propulsion)
Veldhuis, L.L.M. (TU Delft Flight Performance and Propulsion)

2018-01-01

This paper addresses the design of swirl recovery vanes for propeller propulsion in tractor configuration at cruise conditions using numerical tools. A multi-fidelity optimization framework is formulated for the design purpose, which exploits low-fidelity potential flow-based analysis results as input for high-fidelity Euler equation-based simulations. Furthermore, a model alignment procedure between low-and high-fidelity models is established based on the shape-preserving response prediction algorithm. Two cases of swirl recovery are examined, i.e. swirl recovery by the trailing wing which leads to a reduction of the lift-induced drag, and swirl recovery by a set of stationary vanes (SRVs) located inside the propeller slipstream which leads to production of additional thrust. In the first case, the optimization of the wing circulation distribution is achieved by twist optimization. The resulting reduction in induced drag is 5.9% out of 66.1 counts at the design cruise condition of C_L= 0.5. In the case of the SRV design, four configurations are evaluated by locating the vanes at different azimuthal and axial positions relative to the wing. The interactions between SRVs and wing are discussed and an optimum configuration is identified, where the vanes are positioned on the blade-downgoing side downstream of the wing. In this configuration, the wake and tip vortices of the vanes have negligible effect on the wing circulation distribution and consequently introduce no extra drag. With a blade count of 4, the total system drag has decreased by 6.1 counts, which is equivalent to 2.4% of propeller thrust.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c556d207-96cb-4190-a516-aae0c9f34b46

https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2018-3648

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc. (AIAA)

2022-08-11

9781624105593

2018 Applied Aerodynamics Conference

36th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, 2018, 2018-06-25 → 2018-06-29, [state] GA, United States

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

conference paper

© 2018 Q. Li, Xinyuan Liu, G. Eitelberg, L.L.M. Veldhuis