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Propeller thrust question
Thrust from a propeller drops as speed increases to a theoretical zero. When
this happens, what is providing the thrust to overcome drag? The forward momentum of the aircraft? If so, is it a case of the speed very slightly and imperceptibly dipping below the zero thrust speed, getting a little thrust to bring it back to the zero-thrust condition and doing this over and over again? Thanks in advance. |
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Propeller thrust question
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Propeller thrust question
Could you re-phrase your questions?
Ahhh yeah. Just realised you'd never hit the zero thrust speed. Woops! The thing that STILL puzzles me though is that the thrust created *by the propeller* goes down (as measured in Newtons for instance) as the velocity increases. As detailed here http://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/propuls4.htm , the thrust at 252 knots for a theoretical plane is 17.2N, whereas at 108 knots it's 31N. That's what's got me confused. Higher speed = more drag, yet the measured thrust from *just the prop* is less. Is the extra thrust to match drag coming from the momentum of the already moving airframe? Or am I looking at this all wrong? |
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Propeller thrust question
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Propeller thrust question
xerj wrote:
Thrust from a propeller drops as speed increases to a theoretical zero. When this happens, what is providing the thrust to overcome drag? The forward momentum of the aircraft? If so, is it a case of the speed very slightly and imperceptibly dipping below the zero thrust speed, getting a little thrust to bring it back to the zero-thrust condition and doing this over and over again? Thanks in advance. The operative word above is theoretical. The prop can only get to this speed if it is being pushed by another force. It can't pull itself to this speed. The other option would be to place the prop in a wind tunnel and blow air at it at a rate faster than what it can pull the air. You could them reach a zero thrust point. However, you might overrev and blow the engine shortly thereafter. :-) Matt |
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Propeller thrust question
Thrust from a propeller drops as speed increases to a theoretical zero. When this happens, what is providing the thrust to overcome drag? The forward momentum of the aircraft?
Think of it this way - the propeller is attempting to smoothly slice its way through the air, but the air gets in the way. If the propeller blades were in completely flat pitch, it could do so standing still (in zero wind), but would provide no thrust (I'm leaving out the fine points of the airfoil, not important to this view). If there's a wind on the nose however, this superflat pitch propeller would not slice through the air; you'd have to change the pitch to let that air slide through the prop as it's turning. The stronger the wind on the nose, the more you have to unflatten the pitch. Don't do it enough, and the plane will be blown backwards by the wind. Do it too much and the plane will move forward due to thrust. The same thing happens in the air, except that since we depend on the prop to pull the plane, we never get to "super-flat" pitch. And in a dive, I suppose you could get the plane to go faster than the propeller wants to drag it, but gravity is helping in that case. Jose -- He who laughs, lasts. for Email, make the obvious change in the address. |
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Propeller thrust question
In article ,
"xerj" wrote: Could you re-phrase your questions? Ahhh yeah. Just realised you'd never hit the zero thrust speed. Woops! The thing that STILL puzzles me though is that the thrust created *by the propeller* goes down (as measured in Newtons for instance) as the velocity increases. As detailed here http://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/propuls4.htm , the thrust at 252 knots for a theoretical plane is 17.2N, whereas at 108 knots it's 31N. That's what's got me confused. Higher speed = more drag, yet the measured thrust from *just the prop* is less. Is the extra thrust to match drag coming from the momentum of the already moving airframe? Not quite. The plane accelerates (and the drag increases and the thrust decreases just as you observe) until the thrust and drag are exactly the same. At that point the airplane stops accelerating, that is, its velocity becomes constant. The momentum of the plane doesn't provide any extra *thrust*, but the momentum is (more or less) what keeps the plane moving at that point. (The reason I say "more or less" is that what really keeps the plane moving is the need to maintain a particular speed in order to balance thrust and drag. If the plane slows down then thrust exceeds drag and the plane speeds up again, and vice versa. This would happen even if the plane's momentum (i.e. its mass) were zero. In this case, the plane would reach its final velocity instantly once the prop was turning, and would stop instantly as soon as the prop stopped turning.) (Note that it doesn't actually matter that the thrust decreases with velocity, only that the drag increases faster than the thrust as velocity increases so that at some speed they become the same.) rg |
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Propeller thrust question
xerj wrote:
Thrust from a propeller drops as speed increases to a theoretical zero. When this happens, what is providing the thrust to overcome drag? The forward momentum of the aircraft? If so, is it a case of the speed very slightly and imperceptibly dipping below the zero thrust speed, getting a little thrust to bring it back to the zero-thrust condition and doing this over and over again? Thanks in advance. Its hard to separate the thrust forces created by the prop from the torque / hp of the motor exerting the shaft turning force to spin the prop. Its also necessary to consider that as the speed of the plane increases, so does its drag (parasitic drag from the plane itself). At slow speeds, the angle of attack can also create higher drag against which the prop must work. See: http://www.petester.com/html/bachap04.html for more information. That said, I think there are four states we can look at: The first state is when the plane is accelerating. In this state, thrust is greater than drag, the prop is creating more forward force than the drag of our airplane. This is at lower speeds when the drag of the plane is lower. At low speeds / higher angles of attack as in a climb, equilibrium is reached at a lower speed due to higher induced drag. As the speed of our plane increases, so does the drag (so does the lift). At some point drag will equal thrust. If we throttle to 75% power, the speed will settle in at a certain point when drag = thrust, we are at 75% power cruise speed. If we throttle back to 55% power, then the thrust will decrease (less power to spin the prop) and the speed will decrease (and the plane's drag, as a factor of speed, will decrease along with it) until the that equalibrium (drag = trhrust) is reached. The resulting speed is the cruise at 55% power. This "equilibrium" is the second state (cruise). At higher angles of attack as in a climb or low speed flight, equilibrium is reached at a lower speed due to higher induced drag. When we throw out some flaps, we are increasing parasitic drag (not very streamlined) and induced drag (higher angle of attack / aerodynamic drag). Consider the thrust required to fly at minimum controllable airspeed without losing altitude. The third state is when the the prop creates less thrust than the plane. Consider throttling back and accelerating in a dive. The speed (pressure) of the air rushing past the prop is causing the prop to spin at a higher rate than the speed it would turn under the same power at equilibrium. So thrust is less than drag. The forth state is when the aircraft is parked and the engine off. There is 0 thrust and 0 drag. It is a kind of equilibrium, but one that doesn't really do much for us. For a given power setting, as the plane flies faster through the air, the prop takes less "bite" and the drag against the prop decreases. But it doesn't reach 0 (or 0) drag unless its in the third state. That's when we want to throttle back so that we don't over-rev the engine. A constant speed prop simply changes the angle of attack of the prop to provide higher thrust at higher speeds as the prop "bite" decreases with speed. There may be some fine details that don't quite fit the above, but I think this is generally the prinicpal of thrust (prop + power) vs. drag. |
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Propeller thrust question
In article ,
"xerj" wrote: Thrust from a propeller drops as speed increases to a theoretical zero. When this happens, what is providing the thrust to overcome drag? The forward momentum of the aircraft? If so, is it a case of the speed very slightly and imperceptibly dipping below the zero thrust speed, getting a little thrust to bring it back to the zero-thrust condition and doing this over and over again? Thanks in advance. On a reciprocating engine, you have only so much power available. In level flight: Power = Thrust * Velocity. Or: Thrust = Power/Velocity. If you go faster, thrust decreases to meet power. Thrust, theoretically, will not go to zero, but will equal drag, which increases with the square of velocity. If you dive, thrust is added by the weight of the aircraft * sine of the dive angle. -- Remve "_" from email to reply to me personally. |
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