In this work, a compressible Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) code is used to investigate the effects of leading and trailing edge geometries and planform on micro hovering rotor. The current work serves as a step towards using computational methodology to develop a highly efficient micro-scale rotor. The effect of leading and trailing edge geometries is investigated by looking at blunt and sharp profiles and comparing with experimental data. The thrust and power are reasonably well predicted for all the geometries. Blunt leading edge geometries show poorer performance compared to the corresponding sharp leading edge geometries mainly because of large pressure drag acting at the blunt front. Blunt leading edge geometry also shows significant leading edge laminar separation bubble which results in complete separation near the tip. Sharpening the trailing edge shows performance improvement for the blunt leading edge geometry, but not for the sharp leading edge geometry. Flow visualization shows that the tip vortex flow-field is very complicated with the presence of secondary vortices and additional vortices formed due to separation near the trailing edge. Use of twist and taper improves the performance of micro rotor. Twist reduces the induced power, while taper decreases the profile power. Additionally, twist increases the thrust level at which rotor has maximum thrust to power ratio.
Numerical study of the effects of leading and trailing edge geometries and planform on micro hovering rotor
Numerische Studie über den Einfluß von Profil-Vorder- und -Hinterkantengeometrien sowie deren Projektion auf den Propeller eines Mikrofluggeräts
2009
23 Seiten, 19 Bilder, 13 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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