Propeller and wake interaction phenomena for electric-powered distributed propulsion systems including both collective pitch and RPM regulation

Information on this PhD research area can be found further down this page under the details about the Widening Participation Scholarship given immediately below.

Applications for this PhD research are welcomed from anyone worldwide but there is an opportunity for UK candidates (or eligible for UK fees) to apply for a widening participation scholarship.

Widening Participation Scholarship: Any UK candidates (or eligible for UK fees) is invited to apply. Our scholarships seek to increase participation from groups currently under-represented within research. A priority will be given to students that meet the widening participation criteria and to graduates of the University of Salford. For more information about widening participation, follow this link: https://www.salford.ac.uk/postgraduate-research/fees. [Scroll down the page until you reach the heading “PhD widening participation scholarships”.] Please note: we accept applications all year but the deadline for applying for the widening participation scholarships in 2024 is 28th March 2024. All candidates who wish to apply for the MPhil or PhD widening participation scholarship will first need to apply for and be accepted onto a research degree programme. As long as you have submitted your completed application for September/October 2024 intake by 28 February 2024 and you qualify for UK fees, you will be sent a very short scholarship application. This form must be returned by 28 March 2024. Applications received after this date must either wait until the next round or opt for the self-funded PhD route.

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Project description: To reduce the environmental impact of flight in line with the 2050 net-zero goal, a few novel electric propulsion prototypes have been proposed over the past few years, with more aircraft to be developed over the coming years. Electric-powered aircraft use propellers for thrust generation. Propellers currently used in aviation generally operate (optimally) at constant revolutions per minute (RPM), have variable pitch and have been designed to function together with gas turbine or piston engines. However, propellers required by many proposed electric aircraft designs will likely be fixed pitch and will operate over a wide range of RPM in a multi-rotor or distributed propulsion arrangement. Furthermore, these aircraft will operate over a wide range of sizes, from small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to future large-scale passenger aircraft. Currently, there is a lack of understanding on how to optimally design RPM-regulated propellers that efficiently operate in such multi-propeller architectures, as well as how the complex interactions between these propellers impacts the propulsive efficiency and noise generation of the flight vehicle. The project work will be conducted along three topics. First, a study will be done into scale effects on multi-point optimised RPM-regulated propellers using blade element methods. Second, various propeller arrangements will be investigated, and empirical models will be derived for the overall propulsive efficiency and noise generation as function of system architecture. Lastly, an in-depth investigation will be done on wake interaction on the most common and promising multi-propeller architectures, either using low-speed wind tunnel testing and/or computational fluid dynamics.