Ring-Vortex Panel Method for the Uniformly Loaded Propeller with Axisymmetric Hub

What is it about?

The old momentum theory, which relies on the actuator disc concept, is still the most used engineering approach for performance analysis of propellers. In fact, the popular Blade Element/Momentum method relies on the simplified one-dimensional form of this theory. In the paper, we have developed a new free-wake ring-vortex actuator disc method capable to handle an axisymmetric hub. Since this method is not affected by the typical simplifying assumptions used in the classical Momentum Theory, it can be used to verify the validity of this very popular theory.

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