Aerodynamics and Design for Ultra-Low Reynolds Number Flight
Aerodynamics and Design for Ultra-Low Reynolds Number Flight
Aerodynamics and Design for Ultra-Low Reynolds Number Flight
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Chapter 6<br />
6.3.3 Two-Blade Ten Inch Diameter Rotor<br />
The two-blade ten inch diameter rotor is a design based on the WES-Technik Carbon 25/<br />
12 propeller [41]. This carbon fiber prop is intended <strong>for</strong> slow-flight remote control<br />
aircraft but exhibits per<strong>for</strong>mance that makes it marginally suitable <strong>for</strong> use in a prototype<br />
rotor craft. This vehicle was intended originally as a systems integration <strong>and</strong> control<br />
test-bed, making the selection of an off-the-shelf rotor expedient. Initially it had been<br />
intended to simply manufacture identical mirror image props necessary <strong>for</strong> reverse<br />
rotation, but analysis of the rotor showed that a re-design could achieve significant gains<br />
<strong>for</strong> the static thrust hover case.<br />
Based on the results of Chapter 3, the airfoil section is specified as a NACA 4703. The<br />
two-blade geometry was maintained to simplify the composite tooling. The resulting<br />
chord distribution from a full re-design proved to be very close to the WES-Technik<br />
rotor, so the plan<strong>for</strong>m of the original rotor was maintained. This allowed <strong>for</strong> a more<br />
direct evaluation of any per<strong>for</strong>mance gains. The incidence-only design with the new<br />
airfoil is shown in Figure 6.9. For this rotor, the quarter-chord line is unswept. The<br />
manufactured carbon-fiber composite blade is presented as Figure 6.10. The design<br />
maximum thrust operating point is 1850 RPM.<br />
104<br />
c/R<br />
0.4<br />
0.3<br />
0.2<br />
0.1<br />
5 inch Rotor Radius<br />
Incidence<br />
c/R<br />
0.0<br />
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0<br />
r/R<br />
FIGURE 6.9 Chord <strong>and</strong> incidence distributions <strong>for</strong> the two-blade ten inch diameter rotor.<br />
25<br />
20<br />
15<br />
10<br />
5<br />
Incidence (deg.)