COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS ON THE EFFECTS OF LEADING EDGE TUBERCLES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF ROTATING PROPELLER

Abstract

This research paper focuses on investigating the effect of leading edge tubercles on the performance of rotating propellers. The primary objective of this study is to assess if biologically inspired passive flow control techniques, particularly tubercles, seen on whale fins, could be employed to suppress flow separation on rotating propeller blades. Such an effect could improve the thrust and power performance of propellers. The study involved the assessment of various leading edge tubercles of various sizes and extent on a three blade propeller. Computational analysis, encompassing RANS, unsteady viscous vortex panel method, and Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) solvers showed that these tubercles can have a positive effect in terms of thrust generated at a particular RPM. These results are validated against experimental acquired from a wind tunnel test of the propeller. The experimental results also showed, that for a given rotational speed up to an RPM of 3000, tubercles which cover the full span of the blades increased the thrust generated. This effect increased with increasing RPM, a trend also captured in the CFD analysis. © 2024, International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences. All rights reserved.