Numerical framework for aerodynamic and aeroacoustics of bio-inspired UAV blades

Wilkins, Robbie; Bouferrouk, Abdessalem

Abstract

With the aim to understand and control the noise from small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), this work presents a numerical framework for small-scale rotor blade, employing a bio-inspired finlet design. The simulation framework employs Direct Eddy Simulation (DES) for aerodynamics and Ffowcs-Williams-Hawkings acoustic analogy (FW-H) for acoustic data. Aerodynamic and aero-acoustic validation of the framework for a hovering case is achieved using a baseline DJI-9450 rotor blade, with good agreement shown between experimental and numerical data. An idealized blade model for finlet design, suitable for aeroacoustic studies, is then created and compared against the DJI-9450 baseline model. Although no reliable acoustic data could be obtained with finlet design due to computational limitations, turbulence lifting of smaller-scale eddies is observed for the finlet design, indicating the potential to reduce noise using this technology based on previous findings. Initial finlet design and numerical testing is completed for the purpose of future noise-optimisation studies, where the finlet treatment only causes a negligible effect on the blade aerodynamics.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: The Aerospace Europe Conference 2023
• Start Date: Jul 9, 2023
• End Date: Jul 14, 2023
• Acceptance Date: Jul 8, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Oct 2, 2023
• Publication Date: Oct 2, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jul 18, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 3, 2023
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13009/EUCASS2023-948
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10956062