Aerodynamic Investigation of a Multiple-Rotor Drone in Ground Effect
JAXA Supercomputer System Annual Report April 2019-March 2020
Report Number: R19ECMP17
Subject Category: Competitive Funding
- Responsible Representative: Yoshikazu Makino, Unit Director, Aviation Systems Research Unit, Aeronautical Technology Directorate
- Contact Information: Yasutada Tanabe(tan@chofu.jaxa.jp)
- Members: Yasutada Tanabe, Hideaki Sugawara, Riku Tanaka, Kuniyuki Takekawa
Abstract
Larger and heavier drones are being developed along with new trials to built multiple-rotor type eVTOLs which can carry several people. However, the flowfields around multiple rotors where the neighboring rotors are rotating in different directions are very complex and not well understood. Espeicially when the multicopters are hovering near the ground, the so-called ground-effect is considered different with the conventional single rotor helicopters. In this study, utiliizng the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI), the flowfields and the performance of a quad-rotor drone at different hovering height from the ground are investigated.
Reference URL
N/A
Reasons and benefits of using JAXA Supercomputer System
Very large number of computational grid is required to resolve the flow around multiple rotors and near the ground. Superior computational power of the super-computer is a necessary.
Achievements of the Year
Computational model based on a prototype variable-pitch controlled quad-rotor drone is created. Flowfields and the drone performance are investigated for the drone hovering at several different height from the ground. It is found that the flowfields for the quad-rotor drone are much complex compared to those of a single rotor. The computational model is shown in Fig. 1. The flowfields for different hovering heights are shown in Fig. 2. The downwash distributions on the central section of the drone are shown in Fig. 3.
Publications
– Peer-reviewed papers
1) Takuzumi NISHIO, Shigeru SUNADA, Kohei YAMAGUCHI, Yasutada TANABE, Koichi YONEZAWA, Hiroshi TOKUTAKE: Note on a Method for Simulating Rotor Motion when Accelerating During Descent, Transactions of JSASS, Vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 577-581, July 2019.
2) Takuzumi Nishio, Shigeru Sunada, Yasutada Tanabe, Koichi Yonezawa, Hiroshi Tokutake: Approximate Added Mass Method for a Rotary Wing, AIAA Journal, Vol. 57, No. 7, pp.3090-3093, July 2019.
– Non peer-reviewed papers
1) Yasutada Tanabe, Hideaki Sugawara, Koichi Yonezawa, Shigeru Sunada, Hiroshi Tokutake, Influence of Rotor Blade Twist on the Ducted Rotor Performance, 8th Asian/Australian Rotorcraft Forum, Ankara, Turkey, Oct. 30 – Nov. 2, 2019.
2) Koichi Yonezawa, Hironori Matsumoto, Kazuyasu Sugiyama, Yasutada Tanabe, Hiroshi Tokutake, Shigeru Sunada, Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Quad-Rotor-Drone with Ducted Rotors, 8th Asian/Australian Rotorcraft Forum, Ankara, Turkey, Oct. 30 – Nov. 2, 2019.
3) Kazuhiro Fukuda, Soshi Okada, Hiroshi Tokutake, Shigeru Sunada, Yasutada Tanabe, Koichi Yonezawa, External Environment Estimation of Drone for Wall Collision Avoidance, APISAT 2019, Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort, Gold Coast, Australia, 4-6 December 2019.
Usage of JSS2
Computational Information
- Process Parallelization Methods: N/A
- Thread Parallelization Methods: OpenMP
- Number of Processes: 1
- Elapsed Time per Case: 500 Hour(s)
Resources Used
Fraction of Usage in Total Resources*1(%): 0.38
Details
Please refer to System Configuration of JSS2 for the system configuration and major specifications of JSS2.
System Name | Amount of Core Time(core x hours) | Fraction of Usage*2(%) |
---|---|---|
SORA-MA | 503,302.30 | 0.06 |
SORA-PP | 546,064.19 | 3.54 |
SORA-LM | 0.00 | 0.00 |
SORA-TPP | 197,986.55 | 11.95 |
File System Name | Storage Assigned(GiB) | Fraction of Usage*2(%) |
---|---|---|
/home | 4,492.68 | 3.74 |
/data | 13,316.77 | 0.23 |
/ltmp | 2,485.80 | 0.21 |
Archiver Name | Storage Used(TiB) | Fraction of Usage*2(%) |
---|---|---|
J-SPACE | 7.94 | 0.20 |
*1: Fraction of Usage in Total Resources: Weighted average of three resource types (Computing, File System, and Archiver).
*2: Fraction of Usage:Percentage of usage relative to each resource used in one year.
JAXA Supercomputer System Annual Report April 2019-March 2020