Aerodynamic and Acoustic Analysis of a Multi-Rotor eVTOL Configuration

Urban air mobility (UAM) and electric distributed propulsion have transformed traditional vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft into more complex configurations with multiple rotors and aerodynamic surfaces in close proximity. This results in higher aerodynamic interactions between the aerodynamic components that may have both performance and acoustic implications. This study analyzes a six-rotor electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft using computational fluid dynamics based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equation to understand the effects of the interactional aerodynamics of the rotating and non-rotating components on the performance of the aircraft. It further analyzes the impact of these interactions on the acoustic footprint of the aircraft in hover and forward flight modes using a Ffowcs – Williams Hawkings equation-based acoustic solver. The analysis shows that in addition to the adverse effect of the main wing downwash on the tail wing lift, the rotor-wing aerodynamic interaction causes an increase in noise emissions compared to that of the isolated components.