RCAIDE.Library.Methods.Powertrain.Converters.Rotor.Design.blade_geometry_setup

blade_geometry_setup

blade_geometry_setup(rotor, number_of_stations)

Defines a configuration for prop-rotor blade optimization.

Parameters:

• rotor (RCAIDE.Library.Components.Powertrain.Converters.Rotor) –

  Rotor component with the following attributes:

  • number_of_bladesint

    Number of blades on the rotor

  • tip_radiusfloat

    Tip radius of the rotor [m]

  • hub_radiusfloat

    Hub radius of the rotor [m]

  • hoverData

    Hover conditions

    • design_thrustfloat, optional

      Design thrust at hover [N]

    • design_powerfloat, optional

      Design power at hover [W]

    • design_freestream_velocityfloat

      Freestream velocity at hover [m/s]

    • design_altitudefloat

      Altitude at hover [m]

  • oeiData

    One engine inoperative conditions

    • design_freestream_velocityfloat, optional

      Freestream velocity at OEI [m/s]

    • design_altitudefloat, optional

      Altitude at OEI [m]

    • design_thrustfloat, optional

      Design thrust at OEI [N]

    • design_powerfloat, optional

      Design power at OEI [W]

  • airfoilsdict

    Dictionary of airfoil objects

  • airfoil_polar_stationslist

    List of airfoil section indices for each station

• number_of_stations (int) – Number of radial stations for blade discretization

Returns:

configs –

Configuration container with the following configs:

• hoverConfig

  Hover configuration

• oeiConfig

  One engine inoperative configuration

• cruiseConfig (only for prop-rotors)

  Cruise configuration

Return type:

RCAIDE.Library.Components.Configs.Config.Container

Notes

This function prepares the necessary configurations for rotor blade optimization by:

1. Unpacking rotor geometry parameters

2. Validating design requirements (thrust or power must be specified)

3. Processing airfoil data (importing geometry and computing polars if needed)

4. Setting up the radial distribution of stations

5. Extracting thickness-to-chord ratios from airfoils

6. Setting default OEI conditions if not specified

7. Creating vehicle and network configurations for analysis

The function creates separate configurations for hover, OEI, and cruise (for prop-rotors) conditions, which are used during the optimization process to evaluate the rotor performance at different operating points.

Major Assumptions

• Either design thrust or design power must be specified (not both)

• If OEI conditions are not specified, they default to hover conditions with 10% increase

• Rotor orientation is set to [0.0, π/2, 0.0] (horizontal rotor)

See also

RCAIDE.Library.Methods.Powertrain.Converters.Rotor.Design.optimization_setup, RCAIDE.Library.Methods.Geometry.Airfoil.compute_airfoil_properties, RCAIDE.Library.Methods.Geometry.Airfoil.compute_naca_4series, RCAIDE.Library.Methods.Geometry.Airfoil.import_airfoil_geometry