Assessment of a Propeller Model Embedded on a Panel Method Code for Aircraft Aerodynamics

An inviscid actuator disk model is embedded in a three-dimensional low-order panel method code for inviscid incompressible ow in order to study the propeller effects on an arbitrary body. The actuator disk model predicts the time-averaged induced velocities in the slipstream of a propeller with an arbitrary radial distribution of load. The model is constructed by superposition of four vorticity distributions, by neglecting the radial contraction of the vortex tube and assuming a fixed wake for the propeller. Experimental data, available from the licterature, have been used to validate the actuator disk model embedded in the panel method code.