TY - JOUR
T1 - Aerodynamic Performance of Variable-Pitch Propellers for High-Altitude UAVs
AU - Xu, Jianhua
AU - Song, Wenping
AU - Yang, Xudong
AU - Nie, Han
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.
PY - 2019/12/5
Y1 - 2019/12/5
N2 - As the air density changes dramatically from high to low altitude, the matching of high-altitude propeller and electric motor under low-altitude condition is one of the main challenges that aerodynamic design of high-altitude propeller faces. To solve this problem, variable-pitch propeller is the most commonly used and feasible solution. In this paper, the Reynolds-average Navier-Stokes solver and an efficient surrogate-based optimization toolbox are used for the aerodynamic design of a fixed-pitch propeller. Based on the optimal fixed-pitch propeller, a series of pitch angle are employed to obtain the variable-pitch propeller with maximum thrust. Then, the aerodynamic characteristics of fixed-pitch propeller and variable-pitch propeller under typical working conditions are studied and compared. The results show that under the condition of low-altitude and low wind speed, the fixed-pitch propeller reaches the rated torque of the electric motor at a lower rotational speed, resulting in a lower shaft power and thrust. By adjusting the pitch angle, the variable-pitch propeller can achieve higher rotational speed under the same rated torque constraints, thereby absorbing more shaft power and achieving larger thrust. The lower the altitude, the more obvious the advantage of the variable-pitch propeller. Compared with fixed-pitch propeller, the maximum relative increment of the maximum thrust can reach more than 80% for variable-pitch propeller. It is concluded that variable-pitch propeller can significantly improve the matching of propeller and electric motor, bringing wider flight envelope of UAVs.
AB - As the air density changes dramatically from high to low altitude, the matching of high-altitude propeller and electric motor under low-altitude condition is one of the main challenges that aerodynamic design of high-altitude propeller faces. To solve this problem, variable-pitch propeller is the most commonly used and feasible solution. In this paper, the Reynolds-average Navier-Stokes solver and an efficient surrogate-based optimization toolbox are used for the aerodynamic design of a fixed-pitch propeller. Based on the optimal fixed-pitch propeller, a series of pitch angle are employed to obtain the variable-pitch propeller with maximum thrust. Then, the aerodynamic characteristics of fixed-pitch propeller and variable-pitch propeller under typical working conditions are studied and compared. The results show that under the condition of low-altitude and low wind speed, the fixed-pitch propeller reaches the rated torque of the electric motor at a lower rotational speed, resulting in a lower shaft power and thrust. By adjusting the pitch angle, the variable-pitch propeller can achieve higher rotational speed under the same rated torque constraints, thereby absorbing more shaft power and achieving larger thrust. The lower the altitude, the more obvious the advantage of the variable-pitch propeller. Compared with fixed-pitch propeller, the maximum relative increment of the maximum thrust can reach more than 80% for variable-pitch propeller. It is concluded that variable-pitch propeller can significantly improve the matching of propeller and electric motor, bringing wider flight envelope of UAVs.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078298292&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/1757-899X/686/1/012019
DO - 10.1088/1757-899X/686/1/012019
M3 - 会议文章
AN - SCOPUS:85078298292
SN - 1757-8981
VL - 686
JO - IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering
JF - IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering
IS - 1
M1 - 012019
T2 - 4th International Conference on Design, Mechanical and Material Engineering, D2ME 2019
Y2 - 26 September 2019 through 28 September 2019
ER -