A Technique for Matching Propeller, Motor, and Airframe of an Electric Powered Aircraft Based on Efficiency Maps

초록

Electric propulsion has been widely used for small unmanned aircraft for more than two decades. Even though the electric motors are known to be fairly efficient, ensuring that the high efficiency operating regions of all the key components, motor, propeller, and airframe is not straight forward. This paper proposes a performance map based methodology for analyzing the efficiencies of motors, fixed pitch propellers, and airframe together at a wide range of operating conditions. Using this methodology, designers can have a full view of the component efficiencies as well as the combined efficiency at design and off design points. It will also be useful for checking the propulsion component selection and will provide guidelines for finding better matching components to increase the overall system efficiency.