• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.9
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• pp.599-608
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• 2022

Urban air mobility (UAM) equipped with rotor system is subject to ground effect at vertiport during takeoff and landing. The aerodynamic performance of the aircraft in ground effect should be analyzed for the safe operation. In this study, The ground effects on the aerodynamic performance and wake structure of the quadcopter electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) configuration equipped with coaxial counter-rotating propellers were investigated by using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The influence of the ground effect was observed differently in the upper and lower propellers of the coaxial counter-rotating propeller system. There was no significant change in the aerodynamic performance of the upper propeller even if the propeller height above the ground was changed, whereas the averaged thrust and torque of the lower propeller increased significantly as propeller height decreased. In addition, the amplitude of the thrust fluctuation tended to increase as the propeller height decreased. The propeller wake was not sufficiently propagated downstream and was diffused along the ground due to the outwash flow developed by the ground effect. The impingement of the rotor wakes on the ground and a fountain vortex structure were observed.