Numerical Calculation of Propeller Force Characteristics by the Cascade Method

This paper describes a numerical scheme for calculating the force characteristics of a propeller. The propeller is divided into cylindrical sections, each of which is given by a cascade of profiles, each profile is given by an approximated generalized Zhukovsky profile, ensuring geometric smoothness. The lift and drag coefficients ( $$C_{y}$$ and $$C_{x}$$ ) are obtained for every cascade profile over $$-20^{\circ}\leq\theta\leq+20^{\circ}$$ , accounting for circulation coupling between neighboring profiles. By summing up the contributions of cross sections along the radius, the overall force characteristics of the propeller are recovered. The paper describes the validation process of each step. Finally, the action curves for the Ka4-70 propeller obtained using the described method are compared with the experiment.