Advanced propeller aerodynamic analysis

The analytical approaches as well as the capabilities of three advanced analyses for predicting propeller aerodynamic performance are presented. It is shown that two of these analyses use a lifting line representation for the propeller blades, and the third uses a lifting surface representation

Use of potential flow theory to evaluate subsonic inlet data from a simulator-powered nacelle at cruise conditions

Incompressible potential flow theory corrected for compressibility effects, using the Lieblein-Stockman compressibility correction, was used to predict surface and flow field static pressures for a subsonic inlet at cruise conditions. The calculated internal and external surface static pressures were in good agreement with data at most conditions. The analysis was used to determine the capture stream-tube location and static-pressure distribution. Additive drag coefficients obtained from these results were consistently higher than those obtained using one-dimensional compressible flow theory. Increasing the distance between the inlet and boattail increased the cowl drag force. The effect of the boundary layer on internal and external surface static-pressure distributions was small at the design cruise condition. The analytical results may be used as an aid to data reduction and for predicting inlet mass flow, stagnation point location, and inlet additive drag

Calculations of the pressure distribution on axisymmetric boattails including effects of viscous interactions and exhaust jets in subsonic flow

A method of calculating the pressure distributions on boattails is proposed. This method accounts for viscous effects including the presence of a separated region for base flows by combining an inviscid analysis with a boundary layer analysis in an iterative calculation. Details of the reversed flow region are not considered. Some preliminary results have been obtained for boattails at subsonic free stream Mach number with turbulent boundary layers separating at the boattail base. In some cases convergence could not be obtained using the present computer program. It is possible, in principle, to extend this method to the calculation of boattail flows with pressure gradient induced separation on the boattail

Factors Influencing the Predicted Performance of Advanced Propeller Designs

The assumptions on which conventional propeller aerodynamic performance analyses are based can be seriously violated when advanced high speed propellers are analyzed. Studies were performed using a lifting line representation for the propeller to determine the sensitivity of predicted propeller performance to various assumptions in the analysis. Items studied include the method of determining blade section lift and the effects of blade section drag, camber and blade sweep. The effects of nonuniform flow into the propeller and compressibility were also studied. Comparisons of analytical and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the overall validity of the results

Comparison of several methods for predicting separation in a compressible turbulent boundary layer

Several methods for predicting the separation point for a compressible turbulent boundary layer were applied to the flow over a bump on a wind-tunnel wall. Measured pressure distributions were used as input. Two integral boundary-layer methods, three finite-difference boundary-layer methods, and three simple methods were applied at five free-stream Mach numbers ranging from 0.354 to 0.7325. Each of the boundary-layer methods failed to explicitly predict separation. However, by relaxing the theoretical separation criteria, several boundary-layer methods were made to yield reasonable separation predictions, but none of the methods accurately predicted the important boundary-layer parameters at separation. Only one of the simple methods consistently predicted separation with reasonable accuracy in a manner consistent with the theory. The other methods either indicated several possible separation locations or only sometimes predicted separation

An analysis for the sound field produced by rigid wide cord dual rotation propellers of high solidarity in compressible flow

An unsteady lifting service theory for the counter-rotating propeller is presented using the linearized governing equations for the acceleration potential and representing the blades by a surface distribution of pulsating acoustic dipoles distributed according to a modified Birnbaum series. The Birnbaum series coefficients are determined by satisfying the surface tangency boundary conditions on the front and rear propeller blades. Expressions for the combined acoustic resonance modes of the front prop, the rear prop and the combination are also given

Boundary layer thickness effect on boattail drag

A combined experimental and analytical program was conducted to investigate the effects of boundary layer changes on the flow over high angle boattail nozzles. The tests were run on an isolated axisymmetric sting mounted model. Various boattail geometries were investigated at high subsonic speeds over a range of boundary layer thicknesses. In general, boundary layer effects were small at speeds up to Mach 0.8. However, at higher speeds significant regions of separated flow were present on the boattail. When separation was present large reductions in boattail drag resulted with increasing boundary layer thickness. The analysis predicts both of these trends

Numerical calculation of transonic boattail flow

A viscid-inviscid interaction procedure for the calculation of subsonic and transonic flow over a boattail was developed. This method couples a finite-difference inviscid analysis with an integral boundary-layer technique. Results indicate that the effect of the boundary layer is as important as an accurate inviscid method for this type of flow. Theoretical results from the solution of the full transonic-potential equation, including boundary layer effects, agree well with the experimental pressure distribution for a boattail. Use of the small disturbance transonic potential equation yielded results that did not agree well with the experimental results even when boundary-layer effects were included in the calculations

Prediction of high speed propeller flow fields using a three-dimensional Euler analysis

To overcome the limitations of classical propeller theory, a computer program, NASPROP-E, was developed which solves for the flow field surrounding a multibladed propeller and axisymmetric nacelle combination using a finite difference method. The governing equations are the three dimensional unsteady Euler equations written in a cylindrical coordinate system. They are marched in time until a steady state solution is obtained. The Euler equations require no special treatment to model the blade work vorticity. The equations are solved using an implicit approximate factorization method. Numerical results are presented which have greatly increased the understanding of high speed propeller flow fields. Numerical results for swirl angle downstream of the propeller and propeller power coefficient are higher than experimental results. The radial variation of coefficient are higher than experimental results. The radial variation of swirl angle, however, is in reasonable agreement with the experimental results. The predicted variation of power coefficient with blade angle agrees very well with data

An analytical and experimental comparison of the flow field of an advanced swept turboprop

An argon ion laser velocimeter with four beams was used to measure the detailed flow-field of an advanced eight blade propeller with 45% of tip sweep in an 8x6 foot supersonic wind tunnel. Data were obtained at a free stream Mach number of 0.8, the design advance ratio of 3.06 and a power coefficient of 1.8. Data are presented for inlet flow, exit flow, flow within the blades and flow slightly outside the blade tips. The data are compared to a lifting line theory. In general, the results of the comparison are considered favorable