Drone Propeller Blade Material Optimization Using Modern Computational Method

Abstract

The paper deals with the optimization of the material of the propeller blade Drone DJI Mavic Pro using a modern computational method in order to find a suitable material for 3D printing. For computational simulation, ANSYS Discovery Live 2019 was used as a modern computational method. SolidWorks 2020 was used to create a 3D model of the propeller blade. ABS, PLA, PETG were selected as suitable materials for the drone propeller blade, which will be produced by 3D printing. One of them was thought that would best meet all requirements. Computational models were made for this purpose. Deformation-stress states were calculated and calculations as “a wind tunnel” were done. It was a simulation of the take-off of a drone as a solution of rotation of one blade in a wind tunnel with defined different temperatures and rotational speeds. The results of these simulations are evaluated. The highest stress values in the blade area were for the ABS material and the lowest for the PLA material. In the area of the propeller legs, which simulate attachment to the drone, the ABS material showed the highest stress values and the PETG material showed the lowest stress values. The largest deformation in the part of the leaf sheets was recorded by the ABS material and the lowest by PLA. The flight and flight conditions simulations were simulated at different temperatures of -2 and + 25 ºC and flight times of 1 and 10 s for each material. Based on the computational results, the PETG material was selected for 3D printing of the drone propeller blade.