Southwest Development of Propellers

Overview

In 2017 MIT introduced a patent for a revolutionary type of propeller. Later, in the beginning of 2023, champions for the new technology arose praising the benefits of reduced drag and increased efficiency. These substantial benefits are shown in all kinds of fluid. This project focuses on whether or not this new design increases thrust as well. To produce these results, we used two types of 3D printed propeller designs along with a simple fixed pitch propeller. By placing the propellers onto the motor o f an assembled RC aircraft we used a manometer to measure the amount of thrust produced. Each test was repeated three times per propeller design. These findings indicate a net decrease in thrust when using either of the new 3D printed propellers. The disparity in my data could be caused by several factors. Those factors include an increase in overall weight when using the new design, or the increase in diameter of the two printed propellers. A possible solution to this issue could be the use of a different type of printing material and/or an infill design or a reprinting of all the propellers to minimize the amount of variables across the experiment. In conclusion, this experiment proves that the different aspects of propeller design changes the characteristics of thrust, drag, and noise produced by the propeller.

Competition history

• JSHS 2024 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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