Objective
to understand and analyze propellers and the way they generate thrust and their efficiency.
Introduction
Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) impact all the industries by enabling the precision,
autonomous, or remote-controlled flight mode to make logistics or even aerial photography
quite different from before. At the heart of their operations is a sophisticated interplay of
aerodynamics, electronics, and control systems working in harmony to achieve stable and
efficient flight: how drones fly requires evaluating the principles of lift generation and thrust
generation, stability control, energy efficiency, and weight, power, and payload trade-offs.
This report explores the basic mechanisms that account for the flight of drones; it starts with lift
generation through propeller-driven aerodynamics and includes information on brushless
motor technology to convert electrical energy into mechanical thrust. The subjects in this
report include how drones maneuver via differential-flying engine control, their stabilizing
capability using advanced flight controllers and sensors, as well as performance optimization
using various components like electronic speed controllers (ESCs), high-energy-density
batteries, and so on. Finally, the report provides an overview of the design parameter balance
regarding propeller size, motor KV rating, and battery size versus hover time, forward speed,
and payload capacity as flight characteristics.
This analysis is holistic in nature considering several fields of study such as fluid dynamics,
electrical engineering, and control theory, and offers insights into the current technological
advancements and engineering trade-offs that define UAV systems today.
Propeller Efficiency
Usually if we want to know how good something is, we look at its efficiency. And efficiency is
just a fancy word for a ratio of output divided by an input. Moreover, since we are talking about
propeller passed thrust systems like that in modern drones we are talking about the efficiency
of that system. There are a lot of formulas that can help us in explaining the performance of the
system and they are:
𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡
𝜂𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟 =
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑀𝑒𝑐ℎ
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑀𝑒𝑐ℎ
𝜂𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 =
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑐
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑀𝑒𝑐ℎ = 𝑇𝑜𝑟𝑞𝑢𝑒 ∙ 𝑅𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑐 = 𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 ∙ 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 = 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑀𝑒𝑐ℎ + 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠
𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 ∙ 𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 2
And there are steps that you need to go through to achieve your desirable efficiency for your
goal or mission of the drone.
Find the parts for your drone
1. Find the Most Efficient Drone Propeller
A. Propeller Design
Diameter: A bigger propeller profile forces greater thrust at lower revolutions per minute
(RPM); the machines become more effective for lifting heavy loads and longer durations
defined as endurance drones. Smaller and lighter propellers are better suited for speed and
agility.
Pitch:
Low pitch: More appropriate for static thrust and stability (photography drone operations, for
instance).
High pitch: Optimized for speed but sacrifices efficiency because of drag.
Blade Count:
2-3 blades: Trade-off between efficiency and thrust.
4+ blades: Much higher thrust but leaves efficacy impaired because of extra drag.
B. Materials
Carbon fiber: Lightweight, extremely rigid, and lastly, efficient, yet the element is costly.
Plastic: Not life in durability, cheap at the price; yet efficiency is less at high speeds.
Wood/composite: Light in weight, but is not much more prone to wear.
2. Find the Most Efficient Drone Motor
A. Motor Specifications
KV Rating :
Low KV (e.g., 1000–2000 RPM/V): Good for large propellers and heavy payloads (e.g.,
photography drones).
High KV (e.g., 3000+ RPM/V): Good for small propellers and high-speed applications (e.g., racing
drones).
Torque Constant (Kt): The greater the torque, the less current there is to draw, hence more
efficient under load.
Resistance (Rm): Lower resistance means less internal losses in terms of heat.
B. Motor Size and Weight
Stator Diameter/Height: Bigger stators (e.g., 2205 vs. 1806) develop more torque but weigh
more. So find a balance between size and power-to-weight ratio.
Material: Better quality magnets (neodymium) and copper windings minimize energy losses.
C. Thermal Performance
Efficient motors are also the ones that lose heat effectively, thus maintaining efficiency unless
prevented from overheating.
Propeller Thrust Equations
Thrust is the mean power that we need to generate lift for a drone since we don't have the
typical wing shape that will help generate lift due to the difference of pressure, we are relying
mainly on thrust to lift the drone and allowed to fly and down below we will break the thrust
equation to a simple form.
𝐹𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 = 𝑚̇ ∙ [𝑉𝑒 − 𝑉0 ]
Where:
𝑚̇ = 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 𝜌 ∙ 𝑉𝑝 ∙ 𝐴 = 𝜌 ∙ 𝑉𝑝 ∙ 𝜋𝑟 2
Ve = exit velocity of air
V0 = inlet velocity of air
𝐹𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 = 𝜌 ∙ 𝑉𝑝 ∙ 𝜋𝑟 2 ∙ [𝑉𝑒 − 𝑉0 ]
While it's easy to measure the velocity of air before and after the propeller it's nearly
impossible to find the velocity off the air inside the propeller or while going through the
propeller which is Vp and we will solve this by imagining that the propeller is a disk and finding
the force applied on it.
𝐹𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑘 = ∆𝑝 ∙ 𝐴
𝜌 ∙ [𝑉𝑒2 − 𝑉02 ]
∆𝑝 =
2
𝜌 ∙ [𝑉𝑒2 − 𝑉02 ]
𝐹= ∙ 𝜋𝑟 2
2
Where:
Ve = exit velocity of air
V0 = inlet velocity of air
r = propeller radius
ρ = air density
Results
Problem 1
• Air density: 1.1 kg/m3
• Exit velocity: 90 m/s
• Freestream Velocity: 40 m/s
• Area swept by the propeller: 4 m2
• Efficiency : 0.85
• Calculate the Power (W) => Ans = 16823.53 W
Problem 2
• Air density: 0.8 kg/m3
• Thrust: 4000 N
• Efficiency : 0.85
• Freestream Velocity: 80 m/s
• Area swept by the propeller: 5 m2
• Calculate the exit velocity (m/s) => Ans = 91.652 m/s
Sample Calculation
Discussion
1- Using the web discuss about the technical details of the fan of any new generation
Turbo-Fan engine. (Gen-X, CFM56-Leap, GTF....).
When we talk about the technical details of any fan attached to an aircraft engine we mainly
talk about fun diameter, bypass ratio, number of blades and what's the material of it.
A. General Electric (GE) GenX Engine
Fan Diameter: 2.82 meters (111 inches)
Bypass Ratio: ~9:1
Blade Count: 18 composite fan blades
Material: Advanced carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites for lightweight and high
strength.
B. Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) PW1000G
Fan Diameter: 2.06 meters (81 inches)
Bypass Ratio: ~12:1
Blade Count: 20 hollow titanium fan blades
Material: Titanium alloy with advanced coatings for durability and resistance to foreign object
damage (FOD).
2- Changing the propeller shape will affect the air momentum and therefore the thrust.
The shape of the propeller is an important factor when determining how fast the propeller can
accelerate air to generate thrust. We can start with the chord length when it makes the surface
area of the propeller bigger which improves the air flow and the acceleration of it increases the
thrust. We can also mention Changing the shape of the tip of the propeller using a table or
around tip can reduce the vortices which will produce the drug meaning it will increase the
thrust and efficiency. Finally, the number of blades, while increasing the number of blades
allow for greater air acceleration, will also increase the drag, so when designing a propeller, you
should choose the number of blades carefully.
Conclusion
At the end we learned in this experiment what propeller thrusters are and how we calculate their
efficiency. Moreover, we learned also how we can find the first force generated by a propeller
using the equation. Furthermore, we showcased how we can achieve efficiency by choosing the
right propeller and motor for our mission. Finally, we discussed some technical details in real life
turbo engine fans and how can the shape of the propeller effect the thrust.
