Investigating UAV Propeller Performances Near Ceiling: An Experimental Investigation

Ceiling Effect is a significant factor for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV) missions that require close flight in the proximity of a top planar boundaries such as inverted docking, perching, and flight in a confined space. In this study, the ceiling effect on five different propellers(4.7, 5.5, 8.0, and 9.0 inches of diameter) of a both small and larger-types of UAVs was studied using an experiment setup based on the normalized thrust, with different propeller speeds ranging from 5000-9000 RPM and normalized distance to radius ratio (z/R). The result shows a significant deviation from the existing mathematical models: Cheeseman and Bennett, Hayden’s and Conyer’s, especially in the extremely near ceiling region(z/R0.90 in most cases, compared to the existing models. This study aims to provide more understanding of such extreme effects on a single-rotor model, opening paths for proposing the empirical mathematical model and thus possibly expanding to multi-rotor UAVs of different sizes in future research.