Analysis the Unpowered Freewheeling Propeller Impact in Quadcopter for Energy Harvesting Process

Abstract

This research investigates the impact of freewheeling propellers in the Quadcopter for the purpose of harvesting energy. The main part of the Quadcopter is the propeller. In the arm of the Quadcopter, if the Unpowered freewheeling propeller is connected along with the main propeller at the time of Energy Harvesting (EH) process, the induced-flow caused by both propellers may interfere with the Quadcopter’s aerodynamics. Consideration of the aerodynamic point of view to place the freewheeling propeller at a particular distance and place from the main propeller is very important. In this study, in terms of propeller diameter, two different types of freewheeling propeller designs are taken to investigation: Case 1- same size propellers and Case 2- different size propellers. Three distances between the main and freewheeling propellers are defined using the primary test setup as 8, 10, and 12 cm are taken to the software analyses using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) ANSYS 18.1 / FLUENT simulation. The propeller airflow characteristics of pressure, force, and velocity variation between both cases are analysed using the graphical contour representation and measured values. The CFD simulation result showed that, Case 2-different size propellers got better force variation compared with the Case1-Same size propellers and 10 cm distance between the propellers in both the Cases seems good results compared with the other distances of 8 cm and 12 cm. This is an interesting design feature that can be used to locate the freewheeling propeller in the Quadcopter for Energy Harvesting purposes