CFD Analysis, Experimental Validation and Optimization of an Octocopter Drone with Counter-Rotating Propellers

The contents exposed in this paper concern the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis of a remote-controlled drone UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), called Horus, under development at the Sigma Ingegneria company. Based on the drone application requests, the CFD analysis was aimed at maximizing the thrust produced and therefore, with the same power, autonomy, an aspect of importance for the use of the drone. For this purpose, being a drone with 8 counter-rotating and coaxial torque propellers, the study parameters chosen are the vertical distance between the propellers and the pitch angle of the bottom propeller. In the first part of the document, the operations necessary to prepare the geometric model and set up the numerical simulations are presented in order, carried out using stabilized finite-volume software. Subsequently, the experimental setup of tests conducted in Sigma Ingegneria is reported. In the central part, the trend of the thrust was studied as the study parameters changed. Finally, the results of tests that were conducted at the company were reported and compared with the numerical ones.