Aerodynamic performance of a Quadcopter in Hover Flight with the Unsteady Vortex Lattice Method

Abstract

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-3756.vid Quadcopters are one of the most used configurations to develop Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for civil and military applications. The flow dynamics developed by the four rotors of a quadcopter is complex due to the interaction between the rotor wakes and the quadcopter fuselage. In the present study, the flow simulations of three cases were conducted: a single operating rotor, four operating rotors (no fuselage), and a simplified quadcopter operating at hover, in order to better understand the flow dynamics and to estimate the quacopter aerodynamic performance. The simulations were based on the Unsteady Vortex Lattice Method (UVLM) with a viscous correction. In particular, an asymmetrical pressure coefficient distribution on the rotor blades was observed in the simulation of the simplified quadcopter, with the Cp distribution depending on the blade position with respect to the fuselage. Computational results of the quadcopter aerodynamics performance were compared with experimental measurements from the bench (single rotor) and flight tests (complete quadcopter). A good agreement was observed between the numerical and experimental results for the thrust, whereas the torque was underestimated.