Propeller Design – Lessons Long Forgotten
In recent years, propellers have gained popularity due to the flourishing of unmanned air vehicles, urban air mobility, and electric propulsion systems.
As part of the talk, propellers will demonstrate basic ideas concerning configuration definition and design process.
The propeller’s design cycle is not different from other engineering design processes. Design phases will be discussed, starting with defining the basic requirements. Then, various analyses are implemented into a design framework. This includes aerodynamics, structure, acoustics, engine matching, vehicle interaction, and performance analyses. While analysis methods for most of these disciplines remained unchanged during the last decades, the design method improved substantially by harnessing the capabilities of multidisciplinary design optimization tools. Advanced optimization algorithms use this framework to search for suitable solutions.
The optimized set of designs is the basis for deciding which design to manufacture. Finally, after manufacturing, the validation process of the chosen designs is used as proof of design.
The seminar will review some of the challenges and solutions of this design process and will demonstrate this complex, multi-objective, multi-constraint design problem.
From time to time, exotic and odd configurations are suggested by ignoring basic engineering principles and neglecting the proper engineering design procedure. The talk will demonstrate this for several quasi-attractive, unorthodox propeller designs.
