Print Email Facebook Twitter Design of a Variable Pitch, Energy-Harvesting Propeller for In-Flight Power Recuperation on Electric Aircraft Title Design of a Variable Pitch, Energy-Harvesting Propeller for In-Flight Power Recuperation on Electric Aircraft Author van Neerven, Matthijs (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering; TU Delft Aerodynamics, Wind Energy & Propulsion) Contributor Sinnige, T. (mentor) Eitelberg, G. (graduation committee) Simao Ferreira, C.J. (graduation committee) Degree granting institution Delft University of Technology Programme Aerospace Engineering | Aerodynamics and Wind Energy Date 2020-11-30 Abstract In this thesis project, it is investigated to what extent the energy consumption of an electric aircraft can be improved by using a variable pitch and RPM propeller, including energy recuperation during the descent, with respect to a constant pitch propeller. The largest percentage of total mission energy saved using the variable pitch propeller with respect to the constant pitch propeller is about 4.1% for a cruise distance of 5 km when using two blades and about 3.0% for three blades. This percentage reduces to approximately 0.7%, both for two and three blades, when the cruise distance is 200 km. A two-bladed propeller therefore turns out to be the best option. Regarding the effect of the propeller airfoil camber and thickness with respect to the NACA 4415 airfoil, the NACA 0015 airfoil performs best on a short range mission and the NACA 2415 performs best on a long range mission. Subject Energy HarvestingElectric aircraftvariable pitch propellerconstant pitch propelleraerodynamic optimisation To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4f04f27c-3503-4360-8a09-afd55aef0dc0 Part of collection Student theses Document type master thesis Rights © 2020 Matthijs van Neerven Files PDF Thesis_Report_Final_Version.pdf 3.9 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:4f04f27c-3503-4360-8a09-afd55aef0dc0/datastream/OBJ/view