Wind Tunnel Test for the Propeller Performance of the High Altitude UAV

Propeller performance measurement system for high altitude UAV was designed and applied to the wind tunnel test for 2 propeller models with a diameter around 1 m. Mechanical power of the propeller was directly measured by using the torque sensor installed on the rotating axis. The thrust of whole operation body including the propeller was measured by thrust road cell. The guide rail system was suggested to reduce the weight influence of operation body on the thrust road cell. The influence of each measured variables on the aerodynamic coefficients was studied with the repeatability and uncertainty analysis. This analysis result shows that the accuracies of the road cell and the wind velocity were major factors for the thrust coefficient. Propeller performance with typical RPM was measured with various wind speeds and the test results was summarized by performance coefficients for 5 different RPM.