Investigation of UAS ingestion into high-bypass engines, Part II: Drone parametric study

As the air traffic of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) increases, UAS pose a growing threat to the established aviation industry. This paper reports on computational investigation of the ever increasing risk of a mid-air ingestion of multirotor UAS into an aerodynamically advanced, high-bypass propulsion system. A survey of 150 commercially available multirotor drones was performed to characterize average UAS models that are representative of the contemporary multirotor UAS market. From this survey, two drone sizes were identified, based on statistically representative models for both the hobby and professional drone classifications. Using the generalized drone models, a parametric study was performed, investigating systems incorporating wide-chord fan blade designs with both carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and titanium fan blades. Through the analysis, the risk level posed by different classes of UAS on the high-bypass commercial jet engine is quantitatively determined. This work complements an earlier part which focuses on relating drone impact to existing ingestion regulations (Part I).