/pyProp

Blade Element Momentum theory program to calculate small-scale low-Re rotor characteristics

Primary LanguagePython

pyProp

Blade Element Momentum theory program to calculate small-scale low-Re rotor characteristics.

I.Evdokimov, "Blade element theory in the UAV multirotor Blade Optimization", CAE Conference Pacengo del Garda (Verona) - Italy, 19 - 20 October 2015 http://www.caeconference.com/speakers/evdokimov.html

PYTHON MODULES

STANDARD: csv, sys

SCIENTIFIC: numpy, scipy, pylab, matplotlib

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HOW TO USE:

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Launch in shell:

python pyBladeCalc.py APCFOIL.csv apcsf_10x7_geom.txt

APCFOIL.csv - file with characteristics of the airfoil. The data should be formatted as it shows in the first line: RE;ALPHA;CX;CY;MZ Chatacteristics of the test blade were obtained using XFOIL programm. For airfoil very similar to Eppler E63.

apcsf_10x7_geom.txt - the standard file with geometrical characteristics of the blade downloaded from database [1]

Launch in python shell:

  1. Importing sys - module:

    import sys

  2. Assign promt parameters to list:

    sys.argv = ['', 'APCFOIL.csv', 'apcsf_10x7_geom.txt']

  3. Launching script

    execfile('pyBladeCalc.py')

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RESULTS:

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The output file format of the pyBladeCalc.py is like files with experimental data in database [1]. It can be successfully plotted using GNUPLOT or similar software.

The result files of the pyBladeCalcStatic.py is different. The static data is obtained through the different rotation frequencies. In according with [1] the user has to compare only Cp and Ct in static mode, but [2] allows to calculate efficiency at hover so the output file includes this characteristic.

The script pyBladeCalc.py also produces *.png files with resulting angles and Cp, Ct and efficiency characteristics.

The pyBladeCalcStatic.py code icludes commented pieces with printing commands and plots resulting angles using matplotlib package.

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REFERENCES:

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  1. http://m-selig.ae.illinois.edu/props/volume-1/propDB-volume-1.html
  2. (Russian) Jur'ev B. N.: “Ajerodinamicheskij raschet vertoletov”, Oborongnz, 1956