The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil crisis of the mid 1970s led to a revival in interest in the propeller as a possible fuel-efficient propulsion for aircraft operating at subsonic cruise speeds. A propeller aerodynamics is complex and should be analyzed carefully to ensure maximum propellers efficiency. Detailed knowledge of flow patterns and aerodynamics loads is necessary for blade material and manufacturing process.
In this study, an isolated propeller blade is chosen as the base of analysis, the geometry of the propeller: twist and chord variation with radius, are taken from real case module. The boundary conditions of the computational domain are set corresponding to that exist in the propeller manuals.
A three dimensional unstructured grid was generated and adopted using commercial grid generator GAMBIT software. The governing equations are solved using FLUENT6.3.26 a commercial CFD code, which uses a control volume approach on a grid over the computational domain. Results identified that the propeller efficiency, power coefficient are increases to reach maximum values and then decreases with increase Mach number. The thrust coefficient decreases with increase Mach number.