Rotor performance enhancement through blade surging

Tarek Bensebaa (1) , Thierry Jardin (1) , Sébastien Prothin (1) , Nicolas Doué (1)

1 DAEP - Département Aérodynamique Energétique et Propulsion

This short paper introduces a new concept of rotor where the blades undergo a periodic surging motion in the rotor disk plane. It is shown that the unsteady actuation induces aerodynamic phenomenon that can enhance both rotor thrust and efficiency, depending on the amplitude and frequency of actuation. In particular, the increase in aerodynamic performance is found to correlate with the development of a large scale leading edge vortex. Accordingly, the optimal frequency is found to correlate with the formation time of this vortex.

Mots clés: Unsteady aerodynamics; LEV; rotor; drone

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Tarek Bensebaa, Thierry Jardin, Sébastien Prothin, Nicolas Doué. Rotor performance enhancement through blade surging. International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles, 2019, 11, pp.1-7. ⟨10.1177/1756829319844275⟩. ⟨hal-03041153⟩