Bionic propeller design

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China college students “Internet+” Innovation Competition Project *

• 📍Ministry of Education 🇨🇳

• 📅 04/2017-04/2018

• 👨‍🏫supervised by Prof. Yangang Wang

  Idea proposer, project manager and key participant of team of 7, in charge of 3D modeling, CFD simulation

• Catia, Gambit, fluent

Abstract

I proposed and led a seven-person project on a bionic propeller inspired by humpback-whale fins. My work covered 3D modeling and CFD simulation.

We compared three airfoil candidates, designed and checked the propeller, produced a printed prototype, and tested it on a ground cart. The measured cart acceleration provided a limited experimental comparison with the conventional propeller. The project received Second Prize in the China College Students’ “Internet+” Innovation Competition, as recorded in my CV.

Key pictures and conclusions

Airfoil simulation

CFD simulation of three kinds of straight airfoil are performed:

• The CFD comparisons examined drag and lift-to-drag ratio across the airfoil candidates.
• The sinusoidal leading-edge candidate was selected for the propeller model.

3D Propeller design

modeling

• Leading edge: $-45 z=0.5/12\times9.3133\times sin(0.3373\times3\times y)$

• Torsion center: wing center

• Torsion angle: $-45$-$0$ degrees linear distribution

The selected airfoil formed the basis of the three-dimensional propeller.

The reported strength calculation gave a critical rotational speed of $n_{max} = 7339.27 r/min$

Ground experiment

Build the propeller experiment cart shown below, acceleration of the cart is recorded:

Here is the result:

The bionic propeller produced higher cart acceleration in most of these test conditions.

* Refer to the pdf(in Chinese) for more details.

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