Design of a Propeller with Global Minimum Torque

Academia, industry, and Government are actively working towards a future where dozens of small to large Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are present within urban environments. In this environment, high noise pollution and inefficiencies have the potential to render these new technologies impractical due to public annoyance and nonacceptance. This study aims to design and analyze a novel propeller design for minimum global torque using an optimization algorithm to find the full three dimensional solution of maximum efficiency. This resulted in a 𝐶𝑙 distribution defining the global minimum torque solution for propeller design which corresponded with moving as much lift inboard as possible and reducing lift rapidly at the blade tip. The novel propeller (dubbed "Prandtl" propeller) was then compared with the current gold standard in propeller design, a minimum induced loss (MIL) propeller, which had all the same geometric properties except for blade twist and produced the same amount of thrust at the same advance ratio. The results of multiple iterations of Prandtl propellers showed an increase in
efficiency of 2.0-3.3% for the Prandtl blade when compared to the equivalent MIL blade. A potential added benefit of this blade design is lower noise generation due to the lower lift loading at the tip reducing the large shear layer intensity which is the point source of noise in propellers. Two major breakthroughs for enabling widespread use of UAS in urban environments are noise reduction and vehicle efficiency, and this new propeller design has the potential to provide both.