Medições experimentais da esteira de hélices de UAVs

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) play a significant role in today’s world: surveillance, package delivery, mapping, and even rescue missions. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure the efficiency of their propellers so that the UAVs can be faster, more stable, and have greater autonomy. The efficiency of propellers is directly linked to the behavior of the flow generated by them, which is responsible for forming vortices in their wake. These vortices can affect not only thrust but also the stability and maneuverability of the UAV. Hence, studying these flow patterns is essential to optimize the performance of these aircraft. This work aims to assemble an experimental test bench to analyze different types of propellers used in UAVs. The velocity profiles of the propeller wakes will be measured using a hot-wire anemometer. The study will employ a constant rotational speed of 4500 rpm in the preliminary phase and 4000 rpm in the final study. In the end, it was possible to conclude that all three tested propellers exhibit the same behavior: a peak in velocity followed by a gradual decrease due to induced drag generated by the wingtip vortices. Furthermore, it was observed how the propeller pitch directly influences the acceleration of the flow.