Unsteady Simulation of a Transport Aircraft Propeller Using MEGAFLOW

摘要

A series of unsteady CFD simulations have been conducted for an isolated propeller configuration at lowspeed flight conditions using both a structured and an unstructured CFD method. The propeller geometry investigated is representative of a modern eight-bladed design for high-speed turboprop transport aircraft. Two typical low-speed conditions, one at zero and one at ten degrees angle of attack, were investigated and results of the two CFD methods compared with experimental data obtained from a wind tunnel test campaign. The computations were performed with the DLR FLOWer and TAU-codes respectively and employed Chimera grids, which enable the modelling of multiple rigid bodies in relative motion. The results of Euler and Navier-Stokes computations show good agreement with the available wake data measured in the wind tunnel. Additionally, a detailed analysis of the forces acting on the blades and the propeller is performed, which show a strong influence of the propeller angle of attack.