Effects of rotor-airframe interaction on the aeromechanics and wake of a quadcopter in forward flight

From small drones to large Urban Air Mobility vehicles, the market of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is currently booming. Modern VTOL designs feature a variety configurations involving rotors, lifting surfaces bluff bodies. The resulting aerodynamics are highly impacted by interactions between those components their wakes. This has consequences on performance downstream wake. Studying effects through CFD can inform development cheaper numerical models. In this work, we focus interaction rotors bodies based example generic quadcopter in forward flight. Using Vortex Particle–Mesh method, method well-suited for wake studies, analyze influence rotor-airframe loads near Our results show that presence airframe induces change average thrust maximum 2.4% rear rotors. Correspondingly, contribution overall lift drag changes less than 2%, suggesting be ignored if one seeks simple model rotor forces. On other hand, experiences peak due its proximity with blades. Thus, must accounted prediction loads. Finally, comparing simulations without airframe, find trailing vortices converge circulations 0.2% different. However, vortex spacing decreases when for.