Numerical methods for propeller aerodynamics and acoustics at DFVLR

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Numerical methods for propeller aerodynamics and acoustics at DFVLR

Lohmann, D. / Kroll, N. / Schoene, J.

In the DFLVR Institute for Design Aerodynamics, linear and nonlinear analysis methods for flow fields around propellers have been developed. Two singularity methods are presented. In the first, a doublet point scheme has been formulated for the calculation of steady and unsteady loads on surfaces having helical motion in an incompressible medium, e.g. propellers in uniform and nonuniform inflows and counter rotating propellers. The second is a surface panel method for computations of steady subsonic flows around propeller blades moving in a compressible medium. The method has been extended for the prediction of acoustic quantities. In order to predict the characteristics of transonic propeller flow fields, the DFVLR Euler code for solving the 3-D Euler equations has been extended. The equations are formulated in a rotating cartesian reference frame. The solution procedure is based on a finite volume method using an explicit Runge-Kutta time stepping scheme. Numerical results for various propeller geometries are presented and compared with experimental data.