46110 Basic Aerodynamics

Lecture 12: Blade Element Analysis

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 Outline
• Recap
• Blade element theory
• Blade element momentum theory
• Ideal twist, zero twist, linear twist
• Induced tip losses – Prandtl correction
• Continuation of assignment 3

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 Momentum theory
(Actuator Disc Theory)

• Flow enters the streamtube, gets accelerated through the rotor disc
then exhausted from the bottom

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 Momentum Theory Assumptions

• Infinite number of blades

• Pressure jumps while induced velocity over the disc is

uniform

• Wake is a uniform jet

• Pure 1D analysis

• Viscous effects neglected

• Incompressible flow

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 Derivation of AD relations
• Consider a particle that traverses
Vc
from Station 1 to station 4
1 • Bernoulli equation between 1 and 2,
and between 3 and 4. This gives us
ΔP and thus T. T = A (p3-p2)

• Downwash in the far wake is twice

the induced velocity at the rotor disk
Vc+vi
Hover: (stream tube has to contract).
2

3 T = ½ ρ A V42

Induced velocity

4 Vc+2vi Axial flight:

T = 2 ρ A (Vc+vi) vi
5
Climb flight: vi = vc
 Drawbacks of Momentum Theory

• It does not take into account

– Number of blades
– Airfoil characteristics (lift, drag, angle of zero
lift)
– Blade planform (taper, sweep, root cut-out),
and twist distribution
– Compressibility effects
• One solution: Blade Element Approach
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 Blade Element Analysis

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 Blade Element Theory (BET)

• The blade is divided into a number of strips, of width dy.

• The lift generated by that strip, and the power consumed

by that strip, are computed using 2-D airfoil
aerodynamics.

• The contributions from all the strips from all the blades
are summed up to get total thrust, and total power.

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Velocities
Velocity at a given blade element is

where Out-of-plane component due to climb

(axial flight) and induced by rotor.

Tangential velocity, due to blade rotation.

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 Relative inflow angle

• relative inflow angle for small angles can be

written as

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 Angle of attack calculation

• if the pitch angle (wrt rotation plane) is ɵ,

then the local angle of attack is

(i)

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 Elemental lift and drag forces

• Lift and drag for the blade element can be

written as (c is the local blade chord)

(ii)

(iii)

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 Elemental normal and tangential
forces
• Projecting the aerodynamic forces perpendicular
and parallel to the rotation plane

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 Elemental thrust, torque and power

• For Nb blades in the rotor the thrust, torque and

power can be obtained for the blade element
using the relationships shown in equation (1) and
(2).

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 Simplifying assumptions

• The velocity normal to the rotation plane UP is

much smaller than the velocity in the rotation
plane UT . Therefore,

• The induced angle is small. Hence,

• The drag is at least one order of magnitude

smaller than the lift. ~0

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 Simplified elemental relations

• Applying the above assumptions to

equations 3 - 5,

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 adimensional definitions

• Introducing non-dimensional quantities

• The inflow (advance ratio) λ can be written

as

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 Coefficients

• The thrust (CT ), torque (CQ) and power (CP)

coefficients are defined as

• Same for dCT dCQ

and dCP

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 Elemental coefficients

• Using these definitions we obtain

NOTE: Same procedure followed for power and torque coefficients

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 Elemental coefficients

• Defining rotor solidity:

• CT increment (dCT) for the rotor can read

• Following a similar approach, one can derive

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 CT, CP, Efficiency (h)
• Thrust Coefficient

• Power coefficient

𝜆 𝐶𝑇
• Propeller efficiency 𝜂𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝 = ( )
2𝜋 𝐶𝑄

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 Thrust approximation
• Based on linear aerodynamics:

• Using these, equation 13 can be written as:

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 Power approximations
• Taking power-torque coefficients:

Using one gets:

Induced power

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 BET features

• Secondary effects (shed tip vortex, stall, or radial induced

velocity by angular acceleration due to the rotation of the
propeller) not included.
• Over-prediction of thrust and under-prediction of torque
with a resulting increase in theoretical efficiency of 5% to
10% over measured performance.
• Useful for comparative studies: optimising blade pitch
setting for a given cruise speed, determining the optimum
blade solidity.
• Given the limitations still the best design tool, especially
when coupled with Momentum theory (BEM).
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 Summary: BET procedure
Looking at a reference blade from a multi-blade system (typically 2 or 3).
• No. of blades, geometry, wind speed, blade RPM, and blade pitch angle are known.

Divide the blade into strips (blade elements) (typically 10-20 elements).

On each element (Multiplied by the number of blades, Nb.):

• find the local section angle of attack. (Equation (i)).
• look up the corresponding lift and drag coefficients from a table of airfoil characteristics.
• correct for tip losses, root losses, stall delay, swirl losses as needed.
• find lift and drag forces (Equations (ii) and (iii)).
• find the propulsive forces and torque contribution (in the plane of rotation) (Equation a (3)-(5)
or simplified versions).
Sum up the toque contribution over all strips to find torque for one blade (Equations
(13) and (14)).

Vary the wind speed and compute the entire performance map.
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 Break!

then

Blade Element Momentum Theory

(BEMT)

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 BEMT
• Idea is to compare the expressions for thrust from
momentum theory and BET
• apply conservation laws to an annulus of the rotor disc:

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 BEMT: Introduction

• Using 1D momentum theory for the streamtube

• Non-dimentionalizing the above

CT from momentum theory.

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 CT & CP in hover flight
• So the incremental thrust on the annulus and power consumed by it
are:

• For hover flight, λc=0, therefore:

• And the total thrust and power are obtained by integration:

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 BEMT relation and solution to radial
inflow
• Using BET we know:

• Now equating the above with the expression in the previous slide:

BEMT relation!

• Radial inflow, λ(r), is an important property which contains lots of info

on the rotor performance. It can be computed using BEMT.

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• Solving BEMT relation for λ, λc

• Which has the following solution:

• In hover mode:

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 From last slide:

Ideal twist
• For the special case there is an ideal solution for
the last equation. This corresponds to uniform inflow (check!) .
Ideal twist

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 Thrust of an ideally twisted blade

• One can now solve the CT relation in ideal twist

Eq. 13 in part 1 of the
since slides + linear lift
approximation (eq. 3.57 in
the book).

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 Other special cases

• Zero twisted (const. Pitch) blade, uniform

inflow:

• Linearly twisted blade , uniform inflow:

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 Tip Loss Correction
Loss in lift due to
• Induced tip loss: formation of tailed
vortex at the tip.

Simplest way to account for

it: effective (smaller) rotor
area:

One alternative, Prandtl’s TLC

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 Prandtl’s tip loss correction

• Issue: loss of lift near the tips

• Reason: finite number of blades (induced
effects)

Root loss can also be

modeled but it is less
signifcant than tip
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 Prandtl’s tip loss correction

• Q. What does F do?

Reduces the lift by increasing the
induced velocities near the tip.

The effect can be combined into

thrust or directly velocities.

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 Prandtl’s tip loss correction

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 Implementation of Prandtl’s tip loss
correction
• Procedure includes correcting the
incremental CT (from momentum theory)
by multiplying it with F, and equating CTs
obtained from both momentum and BET.
• This leads to an iterative solution for inflow
therefore F itself.

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 Implementation: hovering flight
Momentum theory BET

• Therefore

• Solving for λ,

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 The optimum hovering rotor
• Group work: read and present (in groups of
3) sec. 3.3.7 (p.135) of Leishman!

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 Summary: BEMT procedure
1. For each element, the induction factor(s) initialized (usually to 0)
2. Φ(r) and therefore velocity triangle obtained
3. Local Re(r) determined
4. Tip correction applied
5. Cl and Cd calculated (or looked up) based on Re(r) and aerodynamic forces
and thrust determined
6. Induction factor(s) [or inflow λ] calculated (e.g. from CT)
7. Induction factor(s) compared against the estimates (1) – iteration until
converged.
8. Once converged, the elemental values above are summed up and the entire
performance range calculated

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