Aerodynamic characteristic analysis of multi-rotors using a modified free-wake method

Abstract

Much research is in progress to develop a next-generation rotor system for various aircrafts, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with multi-rotor systems, such as coaxial and tandem rotors. Development and design of such systems requires accurate estimation of rotor performance. The most serious problem encountered during analysis is wake prediction, because wake-wake and wake-rotor interactions make the problem very complex. This study analyzes the aerodynamic characteristics based on the free-wake method, which is both efficient and effective for predicting wake. This code is modified to include the effect of complex planforms as well as thickness by using an unsteady 3D panel method. A time-marching free-wake model is implemented based on the source-doublet panel method that assigns panels to the surface and analyzes them. The numerical wake instability, the most critical problem for analysis, is resolved by adopting slow start-up and by including viscous effects. Also, the instability due to wake interference in tandem rotor analysis is resolved by configuring the initial shapes of the multi-rotor wake as that of a single rotor wake trajectory. The developed code is verified by comparing with previous experimental data for coaxial and tandem rotors. © 2009 The Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences.