Princeton University Undergraduate Senior Theses, 2025
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://theses-dissertations.princeton.edu/handle/88435/dsp019c67wm88m
Browse
Browsing Princeton University Undergraduate Senior Theses, 2025 by Author "Ahmad, Fawaz"
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Parametric Study of Aft Rotor Optimization in Stacked Propeller Systems for Urban Air Mobility
(2025-04-23) Ahmad, Fawaz; Martinelli, LuigiAs Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles become a key area of interest for sustainable and efficient short-range transportation, there is a growing need to optimize propulsion systems for performance. Counter-rotating stacked propellers present a promising alternative to traditional single-rotor systems, offering potential benefits in thrust generation, efficiency, and swirl minimization. This thesis explores the aerodynamic performance of these stacked systems, with a focus on how aft rotor parameters—axial spacing, radius, RPM, and blade count— influence overall system performance. Using CROTOR, a range of configurations were analyzed and compared to baseline single-rotor setup. The results demonstrate that tailoring the aft rotor radius and RPM in response to the axial velocity distribution can improve normalized thrust by up to ≈3.5%. Furthermore, lower aft blade counts were found to achieve higher efficiency. These findings contribute empirical insight into stacked rotor dynamics and provide a foundation for deriving sizing heuristics that can streamline design of optimal eVTOL propulsion systems.