Problem Solved

The problem is divided into two section:

• Arm Pressure Distribution: The pressure field is visualized to demonstrate the pressure between the propeller and the arm
• Propeller Thrust Data: Validating against a physical experimental setup, a computationally accurate thrust model was developed and properly bounded within around 5 percent error.

Furthermore, I was able to acquire an accurate APC propeller CAD file, graciously provided by the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR). This greatly assisted the lab for future simulations and modeling.

Approach / Physics

For the coupled interaction simulation, two separate simulations (static mechanical and fluid) are setup in the Ansys Workbench, then combined using a coupled simulation view. The static mechanical simulation was tested on the drone arm; the proposed force (the actual forces will be patched in from the fluid simulation) is placed on the end of the arm. The fluid simulation was tested with the propeller only at a rotational speed of 1000 RPM.

For the thrust modeling, transient fluid simulations for various RPMs are ran and the thrust forces are tabulated and graphed. These values are validated against physical data provided from another lab member.

Outcome / Validation

• From lower RPMs, the model closely correlated with the physical data and were within the 5 percent margin.
• The results of this simulation were presented to NASA.