DESIGN PROCESS, MANUFACTURE, AND TESTING OF PROPELLER FOR HIGH ALTITUDE LONG ENDURANCE UAV

• Main Author: Azam Maulana, Fatwa
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik sipil
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/72869
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The HALE UAV which developed at the Bandung Institute of Technology has a design requirements and objectives to cruise at an altitude of 60,000 ft with cruising speed of 22.1 m/s and propeller rotational speed of 3400 RPM. The designed “basic” propeller using Larrabee – CFD corrected method has been able to achieve the given target in its mission profiles from aerodynamics perspective. Another aspect such as structural analysis should be thoroughly studied to be able to withstand all the load acting on the propeler within the UAV flight envelope especially in its critical flight phase such as climbing at sea level which require propeller rotational speed of 3400 RPM and generated thrust of 307.4 N. Hence a “modified” propeller is introduced to answer this problem. The “modified” propeller are generated from the “basic” propeller using FSI simulation of teakwood and aluminum material to dictate the its external shape, then calculated using analytical and FEM correction simulation using carbon fiber material to find the internal skin thickness required. The “modified” propeller then being manufactured and tested using static testbench. The result shows that the “modified” propeller able to withstand all the load within UAV’s flight envelope according to numerical simulation with safety factor values of 1.24, 1.76, and 1.64 for teakwood, aluminum alloy, and carbon fiber material respectively (whereas the “basic” propeller only has safety factor of 0.177 and 0.299 for teakwood and aluminum alloy material), the propeller has been manufactured using carbon fiber WR 200 with hand lay up method and has mass differences of manufacturing w.r.t numerical of 11.89% and conformity level of 95.21%, and the propeller doesn’t show any damage from structural aspect in static testing at 1864 RPM. Furthermore, the predicted thrust shows that this propeler at the rotational speed of 3400 RPM can pull the UAV with the thrust of 390.31N.