Envelope Analysis of Speed-Controlled eVTOL Urban Air Mobility Vehicles

<p>There are many vehicles being developed which rely on electrically driven propellers/rotors for both control and propulsion. Based on these vehicles, it is hypothesized that there exists a size limit for speed-controlled propellers/rotors in terms of propeller/rotor diameter. To investigate this, a scaling method was created to allow for a vehicle to be created without being based on a specific mission or passenger/cargo requirement. Relationships were developed to size both the physical vehicle and the weight of the vehicle based on the propeller/rotor diameter. A simulation of a quadcopter was created for the vehicle and scaled with both propeller/rotor diameter and vehicle thrust-to-weight. The results from the simulation were then tested on a pass/fail system using three metrics to determine the size limit for speed-controlled propellers. These metrics included turbulence, disturbance rejection bandwidth, motor time constant, and rate requirements. These metrics were selected from historical design requirements and relevant literature. Based on the pass/fail of each metric the overall, size limit for speed-controlled propellers/rotors was determined. The disturbance rejection bandwidth metric was identified as the limiting metric with a maximum propeller/rotor diameter of 5 feet. It was also identified that turbulence and rate requirements are not the limiting cases for this design space.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Open Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Year

2021

Author dc:creator

• Thompson, David J.

• eVTOL
• Urban Air Mobility
• Speed-Control
• Scaling
• Navigation, Guidance, Control and Dynamics

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.erau.edu/edt/621

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.erau.edu:edt-1632