Comparison between blade-element models of propellers

TLDR

Blade‑element models are widely used for propeller aerodynamics, performance calculations, and design because they are simple yet accurate, but they require induced‑velocity models such as momentum, simplified‑momentum, lifting‑line, or vortex methods to compute local induced velocities. The study aims to describe, compare, and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different induced‑velocity models used with blade‑element propeller analysis. The authors analyze several induced‑velocity models—momentum, simplified‑momentum, lifting‑line, and vortex—and compare their outputs within a blade‑element framework. The blade‑element/simplified‑momentum model delivers high accuracy and efficiency, and for steady axial flight where most sections avoid stall, more complex induced‑velocity models provide no benefit over the simple model.

Abstract

Abstract Blade-element models are the most common models for the analysis of propeller aerodynamics, performance calculations and propeller design. In spite of their simplicity these models are very efficient and accurate. Blade-element models use the local induced velocities as an input thus they should be combined with another model in order to calculate these induced velocities. Various models are used for the calculation of the induced velocity, where the most popular ones include: momentum, simplified-momentum, lifting-line (prescribed and free wake), and vortex (McCormick and Theodorsen) models. The paper describes the various models, compares their results and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each one. The results indicate that the Bladeelement/simplified-momentum model offers very good accuracy together with high efficiency. For propeller performance calculations during steady axial flight, where most of the cross-sections do not experience stall, detailed and complicated models for calculating the induced velocities do not show advantages over the simple bladeelement/simplified-momentum model,