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Designing Composite Adaptive Propeller Blades with Passive Bend-Twist Deformation for Periodic-Load Variations Using
Sondre Østli Rokvam1, Nils Petter Vedvik1, Luca Savio2,3
1Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MTP), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491 Trondheim, Norway.
Abstract:
Four plausible design concepts are applied together to investigate composite bend-twist propeller-blade designs that show high twisting per bending deflection. The design concepts are first explained on a simplified blade structure with limited unique geometric features to determine generalized principles for applying the considered design concepts. Then, the design concepts are applied to another propeller-blade geometry to obtain a bend-twist propeller-blade design that achieves a specific pitch change under an operational loading condition with a significant periodic-load variation. The final composite propeller design shows several times more bend-twist efficiency than other published bend-twist designs and shows a desirable pitch change during the periodic-load variation when loaded with a one-way fluid-structure-interaction-derived load case. The high pitch change suggests that the design would mitigate undesirable blade effects caused by load variations on the propeller during operation.
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