• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.95-105
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• 2018

Increasing cruise speed is an important issue for the development of the next generation rotorcraft. Among several concepts proposed by previous research, the rotorcraft with ducted fan demonstrates its possibility of high-speed flight. In this study, numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the aerodynamic and flow characteristics of multi-ducted fan in forward flight. The aerodynamic efficiency around front ducted fan is determined by interaction between free-stream velocity and the induced velocity. While flow characteristics of rear ducted fan are dominantly influenced by the front ducted fan. Separation in the front ducted fan occurs faster than that of rear ducted fan, and the separation at duct inlet induces an increase of fan thrust. As a result of interaction effect between each ducted fan, relatively aligned inflow enters to the rear ducted fan. Therefore, thrust of the rear fan is decreased steadily before separation, and sudden changes of thrust in fans occur simultaneously. Due to the pressure decrease on lower surface, the normal force of rotorcraft is reduced with forward speed.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.14-16
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• 2010

A Duct surrounding a fan is known to reduce the tip loss and increase the fan performance efficiency. It also reduces the fan noise drastically. Ducted fan, therefore, has been focused to be a promising candidate for high efficient propulsion system. In this study, a small plane having ducted fan which can be tilted for vertical take-off and landing, is analyzed by CFD and its aerodynamic characteristics are compared. Ductef fan aircraft has small range of angle of attack for mininum drag and duct design should be focused for efficient ducted fan aircraft.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.395-398
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• 2009

Currently, a new generation of ducted fan UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) is under development for a wide range of inspection, investigation and combat missions as well as for a variety of civil roles like traffic monitoring, meteorological studies, hazard mitigation etc. The current study presents extensive results obtained experimentally in order to investigate the tip clearance effects on performance characteristics of a ducted fan for small UAV systems. Three ducted fans having different tip clearance gap and with same rotor size were examined under three different yawed conditions of calibrated slanted hot-wire probe. Three dimensional velocity flow fields were measured from hub to tip at outlet of the ducted fan. The analysis of data were done by PLEAT (Phase locked Ensemble Averaging Technique) and three non-linear differential equations were solved simultaneously by using Newton -Rhapson numerical method. Flow field characteristics such as tip vortex and secondary flow were confirmed through axial, radial and tangential velocity contour plots. At the same time, the effects of tip clearance on axial thrust and input power were also investigated by using wind tunnel measurement system. For enhancing the performance of ducted fan, tip clearance level should be as small as possible.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.89-96
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• 2005

Ducted fans have advantages in noise as well as operational safety aspects compared to conventional tail rotors and are used as an anti-torque system for various classes of helicopters. The final goal of this study is to develop a ducted fan anti-torque system which can replace conventional tail rotors of existing helicopters to achieve safety enhancement and low noise level. In this paper, a conceptual design process and the results are described. Initially, the design requirement and the design parameter characteristics are analysed, and then initial sizing and configuration design are performed. There are several configuration changes due to specific technical reasons in each case. Finally, the required power and the pitch link load are predicted as an initial estimation. The conceptual design technique for the ducted fan in this study can be easily applied to the design of other ducted fans such as the lift fan for unmanned aerial vehicle.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1999.12a
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• pp.208-217
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• 1999

The present work describes the prediction method for the unsteady flow field and the acoustic pressure field of a ducted axial fan. The prediction method is comprised of time-marching free-wake method, acoustic analogy, and the Helmholtz-Kirchhoff BEM. The predicted sound signal of a rotor is similar to the experiment one. We assume that the rotor rotates with a constant angular velocity and the flow field around the rotor is incompressible and inviscid. Then, a time-marching free-wake method is used to model the fan and to calculate the flow field. The force of each element on the blade is calculated by the unsteady Bernoulli equation. Lowson's method is used to predict the acoustic source. The newly developed Helmholtz-Kirchhoff BEM for thin body is used to calculate the sound field of the ducted fan. The ducted fan with 6 blades is analysed and the sound field around the duct is calculated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.574-581
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• 2012

Because of the exposed blade, the UAV using the rotors entail the risks during operation. While a wrapped duct around the fan blades reduces risks, it is a higher thrust performance than the same power load rotor. In this paper, for applying advantages of a ducted fan, the tri-ducted fan air vehicle configuration is proposed. The vehicle has three ducted fans. Two of them are the same shape and size and the third one is the smaller. It is possible to control a rapid attitude stability using thrust vector control. The equations of motion of the tri-ducted fan were derived. Lyapunov control input was applied to the system and stable inputs were derived. A nonlinear simulation was fulfilled by using parameters of a prototype vehicle. It verified a stable attitude and analyzed results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.413-422
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• 2012

The ducted fan for a small UAV propulsion can reconnoiter and observe in a town and a small area, it has better thrust efficiency and a long endurance than propeller. Thrust characteristics of hover and for ward flight condition for the ducted fan UAV is important issue to improve a endurance. The unsteady 3-dimensional flow fields of the ducted fan UAV is essential to stable flight. In this paper, to verify the design results of the ducted fan and to investigate a stable aeronautical characteristic, the thrust performance and the unsteady 3-dimensional flow fields are measured. Thrust characteristics for the hovering and the forward flight conditions are measured by the 6-components balance system in the subsonic wind tunnel. The unsteady 3-dimensional flow fields are analyzed by using a stationary $45^{\circ}$ slanted hot-wire technique. The swirl velocity is almost removed behind the stator blades. Therefore, the thrust performance of the ducted fan is improved and the flight stability is maintained.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.144-153
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• 2017

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been developed and studied for various applications, including drone deliveries, broadcasting, scouting, crop dusting, and firefighting. To enable the wide use of UAVs, their exact aeroacoustic characteristics must be assessed. In this study, a noise prediction method for a ducted fan UAV with complicated geometry was developed. In general, calculation efficiency is increased by simulating a ducted fan UAV without the struts that fix the fuselage to the ducts. However, numerical predictions of noise and aerodynamics differ according to whether struts are present. In terms of aerodynamic performance, the total thrust with and without struts is similar owing to the tendency of the thrust of a blade to offset the drag of the struts. However, in aeroacoustic simulations, the strut effect should be considered in order to predict the UAV's noise because noise from the blades can be changed by the strut effect. Modelling of the strut effect revealed that the dominant tonal noises were closely correlated with the blade passage frequency of the experimental results. Based on the successful detection of noise sources from a ducted fan UAV system, using the proposed noise contribution contour, methods for noise reduction can be suggested by comparing numerical results with measured noise profiles.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.251-256
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• 2008

The experimental analysis on a ducted fan for the propulsion system of a small UAV were performed. To investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of the ducted fan, flow fields at inlet and outlet were measured using a hot-wire anemometry. Thrusts were measured with the six-component balance with due regard to the cross wind. To reproduce the cross wind effect, the ducted fan was aligned to $90^{\circ}$ rotated direction against flow direction in the wind tunnel. In this paper, the variation of the flow fields and thrust according to the cross wind were analyzed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.387-391
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• 2009

The experimental study on the ducted fan for the propulsion system of a small UAV has been performed. In this paper, to investigate the three-dimensional unsteady flow field characteristics of the ducted fan, it was measured by using a $45^{\circ}$ inclined hot-wire from hub to tip at inlet, behind the rotor and outlet of the ducted fan. The hot-wire signal data was acquired at fixed yaw angle. The data was averaged by using the PLEAT (Phase Locked Ensemble Averaging Technique), and then three of non-linear equations were solved simultaneously by using the Newton-Rhapson numerical method. Flow characteristics such as tip vortex, secondary flow and tip leakage flow were confirmed through axial, radial and tangential contour plot.