Design Exploration and Optimization

Single rotor blade
  As the primary source of thrust for conventional helicopters, the rotor blades are the most critical component that can have an impact on all other parts. As the planform of the blade and airfoil play an important role in nearly all aspects of rotorcraft performance, including its aerodynamic performance, structure, vibration, and noise, the blade must be designed carefully. 

Blade Optimization Workshop (HART-II) Team SNU AVDL
 As the critical role of rotor blades in the helicopter has been widely acknowledged, the first International Workshop on Rotor Blade Optimization took place during 2023 ERF Forum. The task was to optimize the HART-II rotor blade, and Seoul National University showed excellent results using the ABC2 framework. The ABC2 framework is a rotor blade design framework that can efficiently and accurately account for airfoil parameters and will be presented in detail at the 2024 VFS conference.

Emergency Helicopter (EH-291) Team Crane (SNU AVDL)
In response to the 36th Vertical Flight Society (VFS) Annual Student Design Competition Request for Proposal (RFP), Seoul National University collaborated with Konkuk University design team presents CRANE, an Extreme Altitude Mountain Rescue Vehicle. As an innovative solution for the extreme altitude operation, the CRANE represents a true successor of the compound helicopter to be the unparalleled highly efficient rotorcraft specifically adapted for the Search and Rescue mission.

Wave-type UAV Drone blade with Dr. Dong Yeon Han (Samsung electronics)
 Wave-type blade planform is known to be effective in reducing the level of noise in a ducted-fan configuration. In order to reduce noise from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-type drones operating in urban areas, various wave-type configurations were applied to the drone blades in order to examine aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance.

Light Civil Helicopter with Dr. Dong Yeon Han (Samsung electronics)
 Through a surrogate model-based global optimization process, an improvement in the blade for the light civil helicopter was achieved. Moreover, robust optimization was achieved by taking into account a variety of operating conditions as well as noise performance under these conditions.

Co-axial rotor blade
Due to its compactness and the fact that it does not require a tail rotor, coaxial rotor configuration has received critical acclaim. There are, however, several major challenges in designing blades, including highly non-linear and unsteady vortex interactions due to the upper and lower rotors. It is critical to accurately predict vortex interactions and to design blades that will respond robustly to them.

Counter-rotating with Dr. Dawoon Lee (ADD) and Mr. Junhwi Park (Ph.D student in SNU AVDL)


Co-rotating rotor (Also called as 'Stacked rotor')
with Dr. Dawoon Lee (ADD), Dr. Sunwoong Yang (KAIST), Ms. Hyojin Kook (Samsung electronics)
with Mr. Jeongwook Choi (Master student in SNU AVDL)
In contrast to conventional co-axial helicopters, Urban Air Mobility (UAM) aircraft have multiple propulsors that allow for co-rotating rotors to be used. As compared to counter-rotating rotors, co-rotating rotors that rotate in the same direction have a number of advantages. By adjusting the pitch angles of the upper and lower rotors, aerodynamic performance can be optimized, and noise and vibration can be reduced by avoiding blade-vortex-interaction (BVI) in the lower rotors. 

Propeller / Wing for UAM aircraft
with Mr. Youngrock Seo (KAI)
As compared to conventional helicopters, urban air mobility aircraft (UAM) have a higher degree of design freedom. Particularly, a number of aerodynamic interactions occur in configurations with multiple propellers and wings, such as vectored thrust. The optimal UAM aircraft should be designed taking into account the interaction between the propeller and the wing. A highly accurate scheme was used to sufficiently model the wake effect, and an actuator disk method (ADM) was used to simulate propellers in an efficient manner.