Development of a Microsoft Excel Based Uav Propeller Design and Analysis Tool

Abstract

QPROP/QMIL were developed by Professor Mark Drela at MIT for use in designing propellers and windmills for various flow conditions. These tools have been used by other graduate students with varying degrees of success, however there has not been a formal comparison of the QPROP results to experimental wind tunnel data. The goals of this thesis are to provide a software tool to assist in operating QPROP and QMIL in order to design UAV propellers for the Minimum Induced Loss (MIL) condition for a given flight condition and to perform a comparison of QPROP results to experimental wind tunnel results.A Microsoft Excel based Visual Basic tool (PROPDES) was developed and utilized to automate the use of QPROP and QMIL. Verification of PROPDES is presented to show that it does not adversely change the QPROP/QMIL results. PROPDES is then used to attempt to validate QPROP�s prediction methods and QMIL�s design capabilities by running various test cases for ranges of RPM, velocity, diameter, and number of blades that are typical for small UAV propellers. The QPROP predictions are then compared to published wind tunnel data and the results are discussed. Finally, improvements are made to allow multiple iterations of QMIL to be used for the design case as well as including an APC chord and beta distribution for use when QMIL fails to provide an output. The PROPDES designs are compared to commercially available propellers to show that PRODES designed propellers are able to obtain much better performance characteristics than commercially available propellers for the particular design condition.