• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.845-855
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• 2018

Cross section design of a prop-blade is carried out for VTOL(Vertical Takeoff and Landing) Quad Tilt Prop-rotor UAV with a maximum takeoff weight of 55 kg and a maximum cruising speed of 180 km/h. Design procedure for cross section design is established and design requirements for prop-blade are identified. Through the procedure, cross section design is carried out to meet the identified requirements. Main design factors including stiffness, weight per unit length, and elastic axis are obtained by using a finite element section analysis program, and the design weight of the prop-blade is predicted. The obtained design factors are used along with the rotor system analysis program CAMRAD II to evaluate the dynamic stability of prop-blade in operating environment. In addition, the prop-blade load is obtained by CAMRAD II software, and it is used to verify the safety of the prop-blade structure. If the design results are not satisfactory, design changes are made in an iterative manner until the results satisfy the design requirements.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.36-43
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• 2017

Blade design optimization of QTP-UAV prop-rotor was conducted using ModelCenter(R). Performance efficiency of the blade in hover and forward flight were adopted as the multi-objective function. Required power and pitch link force applied to constraint in each flight mode and limited lower than the value of the baseline blade. Design variables of root chord length of the blade, taper ratio, twist slope, twist angle at 0.5R of the blade, anhedral angle, parabolic coefficient of a tip shape and location of airfoil were used to generate the blade planform. CAMRAD-II, the comprehensive analysis program of rotorcraft, was used for performance analysis of prop-rotor blade in design process. Performance of the optimized blade improved 1.6% of figure of merit in hover and 13.6% of propulsive efficiency in forward flight. Pitch link force also reduced approximately 30% less than that of the baseline blade.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.23-31
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• 2018

In the present work, the thrust and torque of multicopter propellers in hovering are predicted based on BET method. The geometry information of the propellers is obtained using a three dimensional scanner and the airfoil section is extracted using CATIA. EDISON CFD is adopted to calculate the drag and lift of airfoil at a given geometry and flow conditions and then thrust is calculated with respect to a given RPMs based on BET. Two simulations with laminar and turbulent flows are considered. The predicted value is compared with the performance data from the Product Company and results from JavaProp software, which is used in the design and prediction of propellers. In the case of a 9-inch propeller, the thrust from the product company is corresponding to the results between the laminar and turbulent flow conditions. In the 16-inch case, the predicted thrust at turbulent flow conditions conformed well with reference one. The predicted torque shows a big difference with the reference data.