Advanced, High-Performance, Low-Noise Propeller Designs for Small UxS

Improved propeller designs for Small Unmanned Aerial Systems are needed to improve performance and reduce acoustic emissions. Traditional propeller design methods don’t take advantage of advances in coupled fluid, structure and acoustics computational design methods nor advances in high strength, high modulus materials to extend performance of propellers and reduce noise emissions. In the proposed effort, the research team will develop an innovative, variable-fidelity surrogate modeling scheme as an optimization framework. This scheme will allow engineering-tier optimization initially, but can be tuned to providing higher-fidelity results. It will integrate top-tier CFD/CSD and acoustic analysis tools to form a design workflow. Combining these components into an optimization workflow or framework can yield new designs reliably and repeatably.  CFD Research has teamed with university partner Georgia Tech/Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and industry partner APC Propellers to deliver new propeller designs that are born from high-fidelity CFD simulation, acoustic wave propagation analysis and optional consideration for fluid-structure interaction (FSI). CFDRC will combine its proven set of CFD tools with GaTech’s propeller and rotor design tools to produce practical designs that take advantage of advances in materials, ready to be fabricated by APC Propellers and tested at the GTRI facilities.