PENINGKATAN DESAIN PROPELER WAHANA NIRAWAK HIGH ALTITUDE LONG ENDURANCE (HALE UAV) BERBASIS COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD)

• Main Author: Azam Maulana, Fatwa
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/62018
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

High Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (HALE UAV) driven by a hybrid power have been attracted many researchers and engineers. The thrust of the HALE UAV is generated by a propeller where the energy is supplied by a hybrid energy source between the battery and the solar system The HALE UAV which develops in Bandung Institute of Technology has design requirements of a maximum take-off weight of 63 kg with a cruise velocity of 22.1 m/s at an altitude of 18.288 m (60,000 ft) with two propellers. Main problem arises with the propellers which gained from market is these propellers cannot operate properly at cruise phase condition at 18.288 m (60,000 ft) due to the less aerodynamic thrust of the propellers as the implication of less air density at that altitude. The second problem arise is the propellers operate at the low Reynolds number value where the drag value produced is severely high. To overcome this problem, a propeller that can meet the design requirements is needed which can be obtained by the Larrabee method approach along with the selection of a special airfoil for low Reynolds numbers. The Larrabee method based on the combination of momentum theory, blade element theory, and vortex theory is used to design this propeller geometry with an output in the form of a chord and twist distribution along the span. The results of the thrust value obtained by the Larrabee method are always higher than the CFD simulation results, so a propeller design improvement process is needed. The CFD approach method based on Navier-Stokes equation is used to improve the design resulted from the Larrabee method in order to obtain an improvement in the design geometry that can produce thrust in accordance to the DRO. Further off-design process is done to get the performance characteristics propeller and its ability to climb from sea level up to 18.288 m (60,000 ft) altitude. This study shows that the thrust value of the propeller on design using the Larrabee method is always higher than the thrust value from the CFD simulation with a difference of 20% so that a design improvement process using CFD is required. The analysis of propeller implementation in various mission profile show that this propeller can operate fully from the climbing flight phase at sea level to cruising flight at an altitude of 18.288 m (60,000 ft).