Hover Performance Analyses of Coaxial Co-Rotating Rotors for eVTOL Aircraft

Abstract

Hover performance analyses of coaxial co-rotating rotors (or stacked rotors), which can be used as lifting rotors for electric VTOL (eVTOL) aircraft, are conducted here. In this study, the rotorcraft comprehensive analysis code, CAMRAD II, is used with the general free-wake model. The generic coaxial co-rotating rotor without the blade taper and built-in twist is considered as the baseline rotor model, and the rotor is trimmed to match a prescribed rotor thrust value. The hover performance, including the rotor power and Figure of Merit (FM), is investigated for various index angles, axial spacings, blade taper ratios, and built-in twist angles. A maximum FM value is obtained near an index angle of 0° and 10° when the axial spacing is below and above 5.27%R, respectively. When the index angle is 0° and axial spacing is 1.44% R, the maximum increments in the FM are 3.03% and 6.06%, respectively, for a rotor with a blade taper ratio of 0.8 and a built-in twist angle of −12°. Therefore, this simulation study demonstrates that the hover performance of coaxial co-rotating rotors can be changed by adjusting the index angle or the axial spacing.