Propeller Performance Characteristics

K Sasi Kiran Reddy, Shiv Kumar, Shivangi Sharma, Shubham Maurya, S Siddharth Subbaraman,
Sreekanth M N, Sudhanshu Kandpal
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, KL 695547

This report presents the performance characteristics of a propeller. An experiment was conducted
in Aerodynamics Lab, IIST on the propeller engine to observe the trend of net thrust with the RPM.
The propeller performance test was carried out in the wind tunnel by varying the propeller RPM
as well as the wind tunnel RPM and the thrust and torque were measured over a range of propeller
speeds RPM for different wind turbine RPM. The propeller thrust coefficient is found to increase
with the propeller speed .The thrust coefficient is also found to decrease with increase in wind tunnel
RPM. Major components of subsonic type wind tunnel like Wind Tunnel, Load Setup, Propeller, A
DC Brushless Motor, Aerofoil Fixture, Manometers and Data Acquisition Module and their functions
were discussed.

I. Introduction
An aircraft propeller converts rotary motion from an engine to provide propulsive force. It comprises a rotating
power-driven hub, to which are attached several radial airfoil -section blades such that the whole assembly rotates
about a longitudinal axis. Propellers are only suitable for use at subsonic airspeeds up to around 770 km/h, as above
this speed the blade tip speed begins to go supersonic, with the consequent shockwaves causing high drag and other
mechanical difficulties. Propeller performance at low Reynolds numbers has become increasingly important in the
design and performance prediction of unmanned air vehicles. Here the experiment was performed on an open suction
type low subsonic wind tunnel to characterize the performance. Open-circuit wind tunnels discharge their flow to the
atmosphere. The fan is situated at the downstream end of the wind tunnel. The thrust and torque produced by the
propeller are illustrated. The thrust measurement was obtained by calibrating the voltage reading which were obtained
using strain gauges.

II. Theory
A well-designed propeller typically has an efficiency of around 80% when operating in the best regime. The
efficiency of the propeller is influenced by the angle of attack (α). This is defined as α = β − φ, where φ is the helix
angle (the angle between the resultant relative velocity and the blade rotation direction) and β is the blade pitch angle.
Very small pitch and helix angles give a good performance against resistance but provide little thrust, while larger
angles have the opposite effect. The best helix angle is when the blade is acting as a wing producing much more lift
than drag. Angle of attack is similar to advance ratio, for propellers.
Forces acting on a propeller blade-
Thrust bending force-Thrust loads on the blades, in reaction to the force pushing the air backwards, act to bend the
blades forward. blades are therefore often raked forwards, such that the outward centrifugal force of rotation acts to
bend them backwards, thus balancing out the bending effects.
Centrifugal and aerodynamic twisting forces-A centrifugal twisting force is experienced by any asymmetrical spinning
object. In the propeller it acts to twist the blades to a fine pitch. The aerodynamic centre of pressure is therefore usu-
ally arranged to be slightly forward of its mechanical centreline, creating a twisting moment towards coarse pitch and
counteracting the centrifugal moment. However in a high-speed dive the aerodynamic force can change significantly
and the moments can become unbalanced.
Centrifugal force-The force felt by the blades acting to pull them away from the hub when turning. It can be arranged
to help counteract the thrust bending force, as described above.
Torque bending force -Air resistance acting against the blades, combined with inertial effects causes propeller blades
to bend away from the direction of rotation.

Propeller efficiency is a function of RPM, diameter and true airspeed. These parameters are combined into a
non dimensional parameters called Advance Ratio (J=V/ND) The performance of a propeller is indicated by thrust
coefficient (CT ), power coefficient ( CP ) and efficiency ( ηp ). These quantities depend on advance ratio (J) and pitch

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 Figure 1. Schematic of Propeller

angle β Theoretically, the most efficient propeller is a large diameter, slowly turning single blade propeller. Single
bladed propellers are not used simply because of dynamic imbalance (vibration).
It should be noted, that the definition of the efficiency includes the velocity v. Thus the efficiency goes to zero
when the flight speed approaches zero - of course, this does not mean, that the thrust goes to zero.
Therefore, to summarise, while an airfoil can be characterized by relations between angle of attack, lift coefficient
and drag coefficient, a propeller can be described in terms of advance ratio, thrust coefficient, and power coefficient.
The efficiency, which corresponds to the L/D ratio of a wing, can be calculated from these three coefficients. These
coefficients are helpful for the comparison of propellers of differing diameters, tested under different operating condi-
tions.

III. Experimental setup & Procedure

The experiment was done using a typical suction type wind tunnel with speed maximum speed capacity of 40m/s
in aerodynamic lab at IIST. The set up mainly consists of an axial fan, converging duct, 300 x 400 x 600 test section
and propeller as shown in The bell mouth section was fitted with honeycomb mesh to reduce the impurities with
incoming air. The fan was driven by a three phase motor with 5 HP power capacities. There was a multi-tube variable
inclination manometer to measure the pressure at various cross section of the wind tunnel. The manometric fluid
used was ethyl alcohol in order to measure even small changes in pressure. L-shaped propeller was used to study the
propeller matching concept. Airfoil was also used in order to reduce the drag. Transmitter was used to control the
propeller. Two sets of strain gauge and data acquisition system was also used to record data.
Pressure readings were noted at different points of wind tunnel. Wind tunnel motor speed was increased from 0
to 800 rpm gradually. Transmitter was used to control the propeller. Voltage was varied and corresponding pressure
readings were noted down from inclined multi-manometer. Rpm of propeller and voltages(V1 and V2 ) were noted
down from the data acquisition system. Motor was switched off after decreasing the speed gradually to 0.

IV. Calibration
The thrust produced by the propeller was measured with help of strain gauges. But the strain gauges have to be
calibrated before use. The output of a two component strain gauge are two voltages, V1 and V2 , using which a force

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 Figure 2. Thrust coefficient (CT ) vs advance ratio (J) with pitch angle β as parameter.

Figure 3. Propeller efficiency (ηp ) vs advance ratio (J) with pitch angle β as parameter.

and moment can be calculated. The corresponding linear relations can be written as:

F = N1 V1 + N2 V2 (1)

M = N3 V1 + N4 V2 (2)
In this experiment, only the force component was needed. The constants N1 and N2 , were determined by plotting V1
and V2 against known weights (F ) respectively and measuring the slopes. The calibration graphs are shown in figures
IV and IV. From linear fits of experimental data, the constants were determined as

N1 = 19.847
N2 = 6.7921

V. Sample Calculations
Sample calculations were carried out using reading 1 (propeller rpm = 5430) for wind tunnel rpm = 600.

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A. Advance ratio calculation
Free stream velocity was calculated using pressure readings at the inlet chamber of the wind tunnel and the inlet of the
test section. Pressure readings were calculated using manometer readings as below.

P = ρg(h − hatm ) (3)

where ρ is the density of the manometric fluid,

h is the height of fluid column
hatm is the height of fluid column open to atmosphere.
The pressure at the inlet chamber of the wind tunnel was taken as stagnation pressure (P0 ). The pressure at the inlet
of test section was taken as local static pressure (P ).
The free stream velocity was calculated as
s s r
2 2(P 0 − P ) 2 2ρg(h0 − h) 2 2 × 789 × 9.81(9.5 − 7.5)
V = = = = 16.4m/s (4)
ρair ρair 1.149

where ρair is the density of air.

Advance ratio, J was calculated using
V 16.4
J= = = 0.89 (5)
nD 90.5 × 0.2032
where, n is the number of rotations per second of the propeller
D is the diameter of the propeller disk.

B. Thrust coefficient calculation

For thrust coefficient calculation, thrust,T was obtained from strain gauge measurements. Thrust coefficient was
calculated as
T 6.66
CT = 2 4
= = 0.42 (6)
ρair n D 1.149 × 90.52 × 0.20324
The value obtained directly from strain gauges is the net thrust. This includes the drag of the supporting structure of
the propeller. Also, the velocity obtained from pressure measurements requires corrections for the propeller induced
velocity and wall effects. These corrections were done by an iterative procedure discussed in detail in references [1]
and [2]. The corrected values of thrust and velocity was used to calculate thrust coefficient.

VI. Results & Discussion

In this experiment, Thrust components and coefficients were calculated from the calibrated strain gauges. The
thrust values were measured for a range of propeller RPM for different wind turbine RPMs. A general trend is
observed that with increase in propeller speed, the thrust coefficient and thus the performance is increased.
As evident form Fig. IV, there is a linear variation between the Forces and the Voltage measured form the strain
gauges. This validates the principles of linearity in applied stress and voltage developed in a piezo-electric crystal.
Fig. VI reveals the relationship between Thrust coefficient Ct for different Advance ration J.It is observed that
the Thrust Coefficient is found to decrease with increase in Advance ratio J. It is also observed that for a particular
advance ratio J, the Thrust coefficient is found to increase with decrease in v∞,avg . Alternatively, for a particular
Thrust coefficient, the advance ratio J is found to increase with decrease in v∞,avg . This can be reasoned as the
aerodynamic performance of air foils increases with increasing Reynolds number Re.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our professor Dr. Satheesh K. We would also like to thank our lab instructor Mr. Rithwik
for his help on understanding the wind tunnel and proceeding with the experimental setup.

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 Figure 4. Thrust coefficient v/s advance ratio for pitch angle,β = 13.40

Figure 5. Thrust coefficient v/s advance ratio comparison for constant propeller rpm

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 VII. Observation Tables
Rotations Thrust Thrust static stagnation Advance
Propeller v1 v2 Thrust Velocity
per sec coefficient coefficient pressure pressure Ratio
rpm (V) (V) F(N) V
n CT0 CT head, h head, h0 J
5430 0.202 0.3 6.046724 90.5 0.376 0.4153 7.5 9.5 16.41 0.89
6250 0.391 0.48 11.020385 104.16 0.518 0.557 7.6 9.8 17.21 0.81
6810 0.541 0.68 15.355855 113.5 0.608 0.6395 7.6 9.9 17.60 0.76
7150 0.663 0.83 18.796004 119.16 0.675 0.7143 7.6 9.9 17.60 0.72
7340 0.753 0.95 21.397286 122.33 0.729 0.7691 7.7 10 17.60 0.71
7500 0.818 1.02 23.162788 125 0.756 0.7967 7.7 10.1 17.98 0.70
7700 0.911 1.16 25.959453 128.33 0.804 0.845 7.7 10.1 17.98 0.69
7880 0.998 1.25 28.297431 131.33 0.837 0.878 7.7 10.1 17.98 0.67

Table 1. For wind tunnel rpm = 600

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 Rotations Thrust Thrust static stagnation Advance
Propeller v1 v2 Thrust Velocity
per sec coefficient coefficient pressure pressure Ratio
rpm (V) (V) F(N) V
n CT0 CT head, h head, h 0 J
5400 0.014 0 0.277858 90 0.0175114877 0.0664 8.2 12 22.62 1.23
6500 0.201 0.23 5.55143 108.33 0.2414714624 0.2846 8.2 12.1 22.92 1.04
7150 0.352 0.42 9.838826 119.16 0.353686802 0.3954 8.3 12.3 23.21 0.95
7620 0.506 0.62 14.253684 127 0.4511332543 0.4924 8.3 12.3 23.21 0.89
7950 0.594 0.73 16.747351 132.5 0.4869669902 0.5279 8.3 12.4 23.50 0.87
8100 0.659 0.82 18.648695 135 0.5223553727 0.5628 8.4 12.4 23.21 0.84
8250 0.729 0.93 20.785116 137.5 0.561218803 0.6026 8.4 12.5 23.50 0.84
8400 0.831 1.05 23.624562 140 0.6153084098 0.6581 8.4 12.6 23.78 0.83
8550 0.901 1.15 25.693062 142.5 0.6459089362 0.6888 8.4 12.6 23.78 0.82

Table 2. For wind tunnel rpm = 800

Rotations Thrust Thrust static stagnation Advance

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Propeller v1 v2 Thrust Velocity
per sec coefficient coefficient pressure pressure Ratio
rpm (V) (V) F(N) V
n CT0 CT head, h head, h 0 J

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6900 0.04 0.06 1.201406 115 0.046 0.094 9.1 15 28.19 1.206514236
7650 0.25 0.34 7.271064 127.5 0.228 0.2748 9.1 15.1 28.43 1.0974120525
8100 0.407 0.54 11.745463 135 0.328 0.376 9.1 15.3 28.90 1.0535771945
8500 0.515 0.67 14.771912 141.66 0.375 0.421 9.2 15.4 28.90 1.0039970913
8700 0.63 0.83 18.141053 145 0.440 0.4864 9.2 15.4 28.90 0.9809166984
8850 0.705 0.93 20.308788 147.5 0.476 0.5226 9.1 15.3 28.90 0.9642909916
9000 0.82 1 23.06664 150 0.523 0.5695 9.2 15.3 28.66 0.9405414582
9140 0.9 1.23 26.216583 152.33 0.576 0.6241 9.1 15.3 28.90 0.9336953256
9250 0.99 1.35 28.817865 154.16 0.618 0.6661 9 15 28.43 0.9075894272

Table 3. For wind tunnel rpm = 1000

 References
[1] M. S. Selig, G. Ananda, ”Low Reynolds Number Propeller Performance Data: Wind Tunnel Corrections for Motor
Fixture Drag”, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015
[2] J. B. Brandt, M. S. Selig, ”Propeller Performance Data at Low Reynolds Numbers”, 49 th AIAA Aerospace Sci-
ences Meeting, 2011
[3] http://www.esoteric-david.eu/prilohy/HPB-3.pdf
[4] http://nptel.ac.in/courses/101106041/chapter20420Lecture20142020-12-2011.pdf

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