LOW-SPEED PROPELLER FOR UAV APPLICATIONS, FROM DESIGN TO EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION

Paper in proceeding, 2024

This paper presents the design and evaluation of a low-speed UAV propeller using OPTOPROP, a blade element momentum theory (BEMT) design tool. The integration of XFOIL allows for the generation and analysis of new propeller airfoils, such as NACA 4-digit series, optimized for low Reynolds number operation. This integration improves the estimated efficiency match between BEMT and CFD predictions by up to 10 percentage points. The study includes CFD analysis and wind tunnel tests, demonstrating the enhanced performance and efficiency of custom-designed propellers for low-speed UAV applications