Investigation of Rotor-Rotor and Rotor-Fuselage Aerodynamic Interactions in a Tandem Rotor Aircraft Using Detached Eddy Simulation

초록

In recent years, the demand for unmanned aerial platforms capable of carrying heavy payloads has increased to enhance wildfire suppression capabilities, and tandem-rotor configurations have been adopted in many firefighting drones. This has led to the development of firefighting drones employing tandem rotor configurations. While tandem rotor systems offer advantages in lifting efficiency, their aerodynamic performance can be significantly influenced by rotor-rotor and rotor-fuselage interactions, highlighting the need for quantitative evaluation during the early design phase. In this study, detached eddy simulations(DES) were conducted using STAR-CCM+ to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a tandem firefighting drone. Two configurations were analyzed: an isolated tandem rotor configuration and a full configuration including the fuselage. The effects of inter-rotor spacing and collective pitch angle on aerodynamic performance were examined. Results showed that rotorrotor interference led to a reduction in thrust as the inter-rotor spacing decreased. Conversely, rotor-fuselage interaction in the full configuration enhanced overall thrust performance compared to the isolated case, with more pronounced improvements observed at higher collective pitch angles. These findings provide valuable aerodynamic insight into the performance sensitivity of tandem rotor systems and are expected to support the preliminary design of firefighting drones.

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