Date of Award

May 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Clement Tang

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) procedure is developed in this thesis to predict the performance parameters of small-scale unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) propellers and to validate the results against experimental data over various advance ratios. The commercially available Ansys Fluent® software (version 24.2) was used to simulate 19-inch and 14-inch Advanced Precision Composites (APC) Thin Electric propellers each with pitches of 12 inches per revolution. The simulation results were compared to data collected in open-atmosphere wind generator experiments at the University of North Dakota (UND) and also to experimental wind tunnel data from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The 19-inch propeller had an angular velocity range between 1,500 and 3,007 revolutions per minute (RPM) and a freestream velocity range between 0 and 18.5 m/s. The 14-inch propeller had an angular velocity range between 1,997 and 3,507 RPM and a freestream velocity range between 0 and 14.0 m/s. The Fluent software static thrust coefficients of the 19-inch propeller had the least percent difference to UIUC at 7.38% and an average of 10.1%; the least percent difference to UND was 10.3% with an average of 13.4%. The 14-inch propeller had the least percent difference to UIUC at 1.71% and an average of 10.8%; the least percent difference to UND was 8.51% with an average of 17.0%. The Fluent software dynamic thrust coefficients of the 19-inch propeller had the least percent difference to UIUC at 0.167% and an average of 15.8%; the least percent difference to UND was 1.89% with an average of 15.0%. The 14-inch propeller had the least percent difference to UIUC at 0.242% and an average of 10.5%; the least percent difference to UND was 0.364% with an average of 19.2%. The Fluent software static power coefficients of the 19-inch propeller had the least percent difference to UIUC at 9.79% and an average of 17.2%; the least percent difference to UND was 14.7% with an average of 20.4%. The 14-inch propeller had the least percent difference to UIUC at 0.0825% and an average of 1.17%; the least percent difference to UND was 16.3% with an average of 19.8%. The Fluent software dynamic power coefficients of the 19-inch propeller had the least percent difference to UIUC at 0.336% and an average of 5.40%; the least percent difference to UND was 0.766% with an average of 14.6%. The 14-inch propeller had the least percent difference to UIUC at 0.0641% and an average of 6.86%; the least percent difference to UND was 1.36% with an average of 17.7%. The Fluent software propeller efficiencies of the 19-inch propeller had the least percent difference to UIUC at 0.312% and an average of 17.9%; the least percent difference to UND was 0.0306% with an average of 7.87%. The 14-inch propeller had the least percent difference to UIUC at 0.532% and an average of 9.50%; the least percent difference to UND was 0.532% with an average of 8.65%. The results from the developed procedure show that the Fluent software can adequately predict small-scale propeller performance as validated by experimental data.

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