Aerodynamic design of tractor propeller for high-performance distributed electric propulsion aircraft

Aiming to maximize the aerodynamic performance of the Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) aircraft, a hybrid design framework which focuses on the aerodynamic performance of the propeller/wing integration has been developed and validated numerically. Variable-fidelity modelling for propeller aerodynamics has been used to achieve computational efficiency with reasonable accuracy. By optimizing the aerodynamic loading distributions on the tractor propeller disk, the induced slipstream is redistributed into a form that is beneficial for the wing downstream, based on which the propeller blade geometry is generated through a rapid inversed design procedure. As compared with the Minimum Induced Loss (MIL) propeller at a specified thrust level, significant improvements of both the lift-to-drag ratio of the wing and the propeller/wing integrated aerodynamic efficiency is achieved, which shows great promise to deliver aerodynamic benefits for the wing within the propeller slipstream without any additional devices.