As a new way for transportation, electric aircraft have been attracting extensive attention due to no CO2 emissions in operation. However, noise emission is crucial for electrical aircraft to be accepted to transport in urbans. Electric propulsion systems therefore need to be improved to reach this goal. Since the propellers of the systems are known to dominate the noise generation, it is interesting to initiate a research project on reduction of the propeller noise, particularly for electric aircraft, at Chalmers.  

This project aims to explore the potential usage of Boxprop for future short-range electrical aircraft, which transport in urbans as future public
urban transportation service. The feasibility of Boxprop will be addressed and demonstrated based on numerical simulations and experiments. The aeroacoustic and aerodynamic performances of a set of propellers, which are designed with different geometrical parameters and rotational speeds, will be investigated. The findings will be used to improve the existing propeller configurations. 

Publications

• Z. Huang, H.-D. Yao, O. Sjögren, A. Lundbladh, L. Davidson. Aeroacoustic analysis of aerodynamically optimized joined-blade propeller for future electric aircraft at cruise and take-off. Aerospace Science and Technology, 106336, 2020, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2020.106336
• Z. J. Huang, H.-D. Yao, A. Lundbladh, L. Davidson, Low-Noise Propeller Design for Quiet Electric Aircraft, AIAA 2020-2596, 2020.