Aerodynamic and aeroacoustic interactions in multirotor aircraft for urban air mobility

Abstract

The rapid growth of urbanization and increasing road traffic congestion are straining ground transportation infrastructure for both conventional and emergency purposes, driving the need for alternative mobility solutions. urban air mobility (UAM) offers a promising pathway by deploying electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to enable efficient and flexible aerial transport in dense urban environments. However, the successful integration of UAM into city airspace faces critical technical challenges, both at the vehicle and operational levels. In particular, complex aerodynamic and aeroacoustic interactions between closely spaced propellers significantly influence vehicle performance, energy efficiency, and public acceptance. This work presents a review of experimental and computational studies on propeller–propeller and propeller–wing interactions, highlighting the state-of-the-art methodologies and their application to multirotor eVTOL designs. Results indicate that distributed electric propulsion systems arranged in side-by-side configurations exhibit minimal thrust degradation, typically less than 3% compared to an isolated propeller. However, reductions in propeller spacing can induce unsteady blade loading and increase tonal noise levels by up to 10 dB. In contrast, one-after-another configurations may suffer thrust losses of up to 80%, due to slipstream ingestion by the rear propeller, with a lateral separation of at least twice the propeller radius required to recover performance within 4% of the isolated case. The review also addresses propeller–wing interactions that modify local pressure distributions and spanwise lift, particularly in wing-mounted distributed propulsion configurations. The insights provided establish a foundation for developing efficient, low-noise multirotor architectures for future UAM integration.