Investigation of propeller characteristics at low Reynolds number with an angle of attack

Abstract

Advancements in technology have made commercial unmanned aerial vehicles reliable and readily available, leading to an exponential rise in their market demand over the past few years. COVID-19 has further accelerated this growth through an increase in demand for contact-less delivery and crowd monitoring systems. However, despite these favorable conditions, their limited range, perceived threat, and concerns about noise pollution in urban environments have prevented them from being widely accepted by society. A recent study by NASA found that people perceive UAV noise to be more annoying than cars, and trucks at a similar sound pressure level, which highlights the need to understand the acoustic characteristic of these aircraft. These UAVs are generally powered by electric motors, making their propellers the most dominant source of noise. In the past, researchers have conducted several studies to understand and characterize the noise produced by aircraft propellers. However, these studies were limited to high Reynolds (>1,000,000) and Mach number operations for large commercial aircraft, creating a significant gap in the understanding of the aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics of propellers operating at low Reynolds (<200,000) and Mach number. This thesis aims to address the research gap by performing a high-fidelity computational simulation using Dassault Systèmes PowerFLOW®. The tool uses a lattice Boltzmann very large eddy simulation (LBM-VLES) based approach to compute the aerodynamic results and the Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings (FWH) aeroacoustic analogy to calculate far-field acoustic values. The main objective of the thesis is: “To characterize and quantify the effect of non-axisymmetric inflow conditions on the aerodynamic and acoustic properties of propellers operating at low Reynolds numbers.” To meet the objective, a computational setup consisting of a twin-bladed propeller with a radius of 15 cm is designed in PowerFLOW®. The propeller is analyzed at 0º and 15º AoA, operating at 6000 RPM with a free stream velocity of 12 m/sec and the results validated against experimental data. Aerodynamic measurements and flow analysis revealed that the change in angle of attack (AoA) resulted in a 3.87% increase in the net thrust, and 1.16% increase in the net torque value of the propeller. Operating at an AoA, the propeller blade experiences asymmetric loading around the propeller plane, the loads fluctuate by 35% between the points of maximum and minimum loading. Further analysis of the propeller flow field is carried out by averaging the velocity field and performing a phase-locked analysis to visualize the vortex field. The analysis helps in understanding the effect of AoA on propeller wake and quantifies its a symmetric nature. Far-field acoustic data is acquired by two circular microphone arrays, with a polar angle resolution of 10º. The arrays are placed around the propeller plane and along the axial axis of the propeller. The change in AoA results in a 3 dB higher noise at an azimuthal angle (Ψ) of 90º and reduces by an equal magnitude at Ψ = 270º. The shift is attributed to the change in propeller tip Mach number and local blade AoA as a function of its azimuthal location and propeller AoA. Further analysis of the sound power level (PWL) produced by the propeller is carried out, showing a 1.5 dB increase in the PWL produced by the propeller blade at 15º AoA than 0º.