Design and performance evaluation of drone propellers

Drones are nowadays becoming more and more common. This paper presents a way to improve their performance and increase their versatility based on a faster design and development of drone propellers. This process starts with the modeling of the blades and of the hub of the propeller, which are required to meet dimensional specifications. Afterward, an evaluation is performed with fluid dynamics simulation tools which allows one to predict the forces acting on the propeller and, in particular, its thrust. After being realized using 3D printing, the real propeller undergoes tests that are necessary to verify its resistance to the operating forces and speeds. Afterwards, the propeller is subject to other tests to measure the generated thrust and compare it with the one expected from the simulations. Finally, in this paper, a comparison was performed with the thrust produced by other propellers to understand the improvements that can be adopted.