Computational analysis of propeller slipstream aerodynamic effects

Abstract

Numerical investigation of a representative (turboprop commuter) propeller slipstream aerodynamic effects on different nacelle/wing combinations is performed in a commercial software package ANSYS FLUENT. The obtained numerical results are compared to the experimental values of pressure coefficient obtained in a low speed wind tunnel investigation. The study is performed for two reasons: i) to gain more physical insight into the complex flow field that consequently appears, and ii) to evaluate the chosen software and test its abilities to adequately represent this unsteady, three-dimensional, rotational, interacting flow field. In the presented numerical study, flow field is computed by Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations closed by 2-equation k-ω SST turbulence model. Presented results include fluid flow visualizations in the form of pressure coefficient and vorticity contours and the values of aerodynamic coefficients.