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:
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Importing sys - module:
import sys
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Assign promt parameters to list:
sys.argv = ['', 'APCFOIL.csv', 'apcsf_10x7_geom.txt']
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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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- http://m-selig.ae.illinois.edu/props/volume-1/propDB-volume-1.html
- (Russian) Jur'ev B. N.: “Ajerodinamicheskij raschet vertoletov”, Oborongnz, 1956