Propeller ground effect in forward flight
Cai, Jielong Gunasekaran, Sidaard
Cai, Jielong
Gunasekaran, Sidaard
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Cai, Jielong
Gunasekaran, Sidaard
Gunasekaran, Sidaard
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2023-07-13
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Propeller Ground Effect in Forward Flight Jielong Cai and Sidaard Gunasekaran AIAA Journal 2023 61:10, 4378-4390
Abstract
The study of the fixed-pitch small-scale propeller in-ground effect is extended to forward flight conditions at different incidence angles of the propeller. Force-based experiments, smoke flow visualization, surface flow visualization, and phase-locked particle image velocimetry (PIV) indicate the presence of three distinct performance zones as a function of the advance ratio and ground distance, where the ground effect changes drastically. The power required at constant thrust shows an increasing trend after a threshold advance ratio for each h∕D and then decreases steeply upon a further increase in the advance ratio. Phase-locked PIV revealed the presence of a fountain vortex and a ground vortex at distinct J for each h∕Ddistance that correlates with an increase in power and a decrease in thrust, respectively. At advance ratios below the onset of the fountain vortex lies the optimal ground effect zone. An increase in the advance ratio beyond this threshold will result in power increments due to the formation of the fountain vortex.Afurther increase in the advance ratio initiates the onset of the ground vortex where the ground effect is significantly reduced. The onset of the fountain vortex and the ground vortex occurs at comparatively lower advance ratios for propellers at a positive incidence angle. A normalization method is developed for ground effect forward flight that collapses the in-ground-effect performance for various normalized heights, advance ratios, and incidence angles. © 2023 by Jielong Cai and SidaardGunasekaran.
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This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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AIAA International
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AIAA Journal
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00011452