Carlo Rotundo, Jurij Sodja, Tomas Sinnige
DOI Number: N/A
Conference number: IFASD-2024-174
An aeroelastic optimization procedure was developed and applied towards the structural blade design for dual-role propellers that are capable of harvesting energy during descent. The purpose of this investigation was to assess the effectiveness of aeroelastic tailoring, when applied towards the improvement of propeller performance for general aviation applications. The optimization objective was to minimize total energy consumption over a climb-cruise-descent mission, with varying cruise distances, as well as constraints on deformations, strains, and laminate feasibility. Results from optimization studies suggest that the ideal flexible constant- and variable- pitch propellers outperformed
their rigid counterparts, yielding a decrease in energy consumption in comparison to the referenced rigid variable-pitch propeller by 0.7% – 1.0% and 1.5% – 2.0%, respectively. It has thus been shown that aeroelastic tailoring can yield noticeable improvements in propeller performance by introducing bendtwist and extension-shear coupling to yield an aerodynamic wash-out effect that alleviates blade loads. Coupling the proposed structural optimization framework to a blade aerodynamic geometry optimization procedure is expected to result in further performance enhancements.