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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine dependencies between a rotor-blade shape and a rotor performance as well as to search for optimal shapes of blades dedicated for helicopter main and tail rotors. Design/methodology/approach The research is conducted based on computational methodology, using the parametric-design approach. The developed parametric model takes into account several typical blade-shape parameters. The rotor aerodynamic characteristics are evaluated using the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes solver. Flow effects caused by rotating blades are modelled based on both simplified approach and truly 3D simulations. Findings The computational studies have shown that the helicopter-rotor performance may be significantly improved even through relatively simple aerodynamic redesigning of its blades. The research results confirm high potential of the developed methodology of rotor-blade optimisation. Developed families of helicopter-rotor-blade airfoils are competitive compared to the best airfoils cited in literature. The finally designed rotors, compared to the baselines, for the same driving power, are characterised by 5 and 32% higher thrust, in case of main and tail rotor, respectively. Practical implications The developed and implemented methodology of parametric design and optimisation of helicopter-rotor blades may be used in future studies on performance improvement of rotorcraft rotors. Some of presented results concern the redesigning of main and tail rotors of existing helicopters. These results may be used directly in modernisation processes of these helicopters. Originality/value The presented study is original in relation to the developed methodology of optimisation of helicopter-rotor blades, families of modern helicopter airfoils and innovative solutions in rotor-blade-design area.

New concept of innovative, high-efficiency wind turbine has been developed and optimised. The turbine consists of a rotor with a vertical axis of rotation and a ring-palisade casing, which task is to deflect wind stream so that it flows perpendicularly to the rotor plane. The main advantage of such configuration of a wind turbine is that due to the vertical axis of symmetry, it works independently on the wind direction and it does not need any mechanism directing it towards the wind. The greatest challenge when designing the turbine was to minimise losses of energy of the wind stream deflected by 90 degrees by the ring vanes of the casing. This involved optimisation of number, shapes and mutual positions of the ring vanes. The whole optimisation works were done based on computational methods of Computer-Aided Design and Optimisation and Computational Fluid Dynamic. Subsequent variants of the ringpalisade casing were designed using an appropriately adapted in-house-software package supporting design and optimisation of multi-element airfoils. Three-dimensional analysis of flow around and inside the casing was conducted by application of commercial URANS solver ANSYS FLUENT. Eventually designed turbine is characterised by high efficiency in respect of acceleration of the wind stream. On the basis of computer simulations, it is estimated that the average velocity of air stream flowing through the rotor plane may be higher than the wind speed by about 45%. Extent of the acceleration of the wind stream partially depends on the number of ring vanes comprising a casing. Depending on specificity of application, this number of ring vanes may be chosen by a compromise between performance and dimensions of the turbine. The proposed wind turbine seems to be very promising solution, especially within the area of small and moderate renewable-energy sources, which in particular may be placed directly in residential-building areas, e.g. on the roofs of houses. This type of renewable-energy sources may also be successfully used in the field of environmentally friendly transport, in the process of producing hydrogen as fuel for fuel cell vehicles.

The paper presents computational fluid dynamics hybrid model for analysis of complex flow composed of flow zones at low Reynolds number and flow zones at relatively high Reynolds number conditions. In the described model both ranges of the flow are separated and resolved independently using different way of simulation. That kind of phenomenon is typical for aerodynamics of unmanned propeller driven aircrafts operating at very high altitude conditions (stratospheric). That type of aerial vehicles is now used for military and scientific purposes. In many cases, the wings of a plane are operating at relatively high Reynolds number flow conditions and low angles of attack while the parts of the propeller blades are working at low Reynolds number flow condition and high angles of attack. Described numerical model was used for analysis of the impact of working propellers on the aerodynamics of the aircraft. Analysis was made on the example of a twin-engine, unmanned aircraft with electric motors during the high altitude flight. Three configurations were studied and compared: the plane without propellers, the plane with pusher propellers and the plane with tractor propellers. For each configuration, distributions of aerodynamic coefficients along the span of the wing and their global values for the entire aircraft were estimated. Calculations were performed using the Fluent solver with implementation of a model of propeller based on the Blade Element Theory. Results of the analysis indicate a slight advantage of the tractor propellers configuration.