Flight Dynamics Analyses of a Propeller-Driven Airplane (I): Aerodynamic and Inertial Modeling of the Propeller

• Published in: International journal of aeronautical and space sciences Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 345 - 355
• Main Authors: Kim, Chang-Joo, Kim, Sang Ho, Park, TaeSan, Park, Soo Hyung, Lee, Jae Woo, Ko, Joon Soo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국항공우주학회 01.12.2014
• Subjects: 항공우주공학
• ISSN: 2093-274X; 2093-2480
• DOI: 10.5139/IJASS.2014.15.4.345

This paper focuses on aerodynamic and inertial modeling of the propeller for its applications in flight dynamics analyses of apropeller-driven airplane. Unsteady aerodynamic and inertial loads generated by the propeller are formulated using the bladeelement method, where the local velocity and acceleration vectors for each blade element are obtained from exact kinematicrelations for general maneuvering conditions. Vortex theory is applied to obtain the flow velocities induced by the propellerwake, which are used in the computation of the aerodynamic forces and moments generated by the propeller and otheraerodynamic surfaces. The vortex lattice method is adopted to obtain the induced velocity over the wing and empennagecomponents and the related influence coefficients are computed, taking into account the propeller induced velocities bytracing the wake trajectory trailing from each of the propeller blades. Aerodynamic forces and moments of the fuselage andother aerodynamic surfaces are computed by using the wind tunnel database and applying strip theory to incorporate viscousflow effects. The propeller models proposed in this paper are applied to predict isolated propeller performances under steadyflight conditions. Trimmed level forward and turn flights are analyzed to investigate the effects of the propeller on the flightcharacteristics of a propeller-driven light-sports airplane. Flight test results for a series of maneuvering flights using a scaledmodel are employed to run the flight dynamic analysis program for the proposed propeller models. The simulations arecompared with the flight test results to validate the usefulness of the approach. The resultant good correlations between thetwo data sets shows the propeller models proposed in this paper can predict flight characteristics with good accuracy. KCI Citation Count: 7