Propeller

A propeller is an airfoil and like a wing it will generate an aerodynamic force much the same way. It has a leading and trailing edge, camber and a chord line. The cambered side is called blade back and the flatter side the blade face. The angle which the chord makes to the plane of rotation is the blade angle. The propeller is rotated by the engine and this creates thrust and moves the aircraft forward. Previous page discussed the propeller blade twist and performance, in this section we will discuss blade twisting forces and length and tip speeds.

Propeller Twisting Forces

Large stresses are involved when the propeller rotates. Think of centrifugal force and twisting and aerodynamic twisting forces acting on the blades, hub and pitch changing mechanism. Centrifugal force is opposed by centripetal force acting toward the hub (if this was not the case the blade would be thrown away), this force is proportional to the mass of the blade times the square of the rotational velocity.

Centrifugal twisting
During rotation centrifugal force acts from the hub span-wise along the blades outward (pulling on the blade) and also on the leading and trailing edges along the blade. As the blade has a twist (blade angle) compared to the plane of rotation, the centrifugal force will try to fine the propeller along the pitch change axis toward the

plane of rotation. This twisting force places a great demand on the pitch mechanism; counterweights are used to balance out this twisting toward the fine pitch. The force will be greater on wide blade propellers compared to narrow blade types. Aerodynamic twisting This force develops when the total reaction force acts on a point ahead of the pitch axis of the blade. It tries to increase the blade angle, coarsen the propeller. This only partially offsets the centrifugal twisting force. With a wind-milling propeller the total reaction force is opposite and acts in the same direction as the centrifugal twisting force both trying to fine the propeller. During a steep dive these forces might become stronger than the pitch changing mechanism, effectively locking the propeller into fine pitch and possibly over-speeding the engine. Despite the fact of having a constant speed propeller.

Blade length
As the propeller rotates in a circle it becomes clear that with increasing engine/propeller RPM the propeller tip speed rises too. When the tips come close or reach the sound barrier (Mach 1.0) they will become very noisy and propeller effectiveness (thrust) is reduced. But reducing the tip speed by reducing the RPM has one big disadvantage, propeller thrust will reduce also. Some propellers solve this noise problem by curving leading edges to the rear near the tips. The trick is to keep the RPM high enough to generate useful thrust but low enough to keep the propeller quiet. This

maximum tip speed is between Mach .88 and .92 and the RPM where that is reached depends on the propeller diameter.