IMPACT OF NON-ZERO INCIDENT ANGLE TO PROPELLER PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS AND ITS BEM MODEL

Abstract

: Small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) typically rely on a fixed pitch propeller to produce required thrust. Knowledge of the propeller performance characteristics can help to properly choose or design an optimal propeller for a given SUAV and its mission. These characteristics can be obtained by a number of methods, with this paper focusing on the so-called blade element Joukowsky model (BEM). The original model was derived for the propeller operating in an axial flow. This paper explains a modified version of the original algorithm to introduce a non-zero incident angle to the calculation. Furthermore, it presents results from the measurement of the Bambula 18x8 fixed pitch propeller in an incident flow and compares the results from the measurement with the calculated data.