Research on the Distributed Propeller Slipstream Effect of UAV Wing Based on the Actuator Disk Method

Distributed electric propulsion technology has great potential and advantages in the development of drones. In this paper, to study slipstream effect distributed propellers, actuator disk method was used verify a single propeller, calculated thrust good agreement with test results. Then, based on method, influence different installation positions studied, propeller layout optimized by genetic algorithm improve low-speed performance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) during take-off phase increase cruise duration. The analysis results showed that lift wing will be larger when propellers are higher than wing. drag counter-rotating less those co-rotating. Compared original layout, coefficient is significantly increased 30.97%, while lift/drag ratio 7.34%. Finally, we designed platform qualitatively verified without quantitative verification.