Aerodynamic analysis of rotor-to-rotor interactions in different octocopter configurations

Rotor-to-rotor interaction among neighboring rotors of a multirotor has great significance for aerodynamically efficient multirotor design. Current research is conducted to analyze aerodynamic performance of different octocopter configurations amid hover and forward flight. Conventional and coaxial configurations are studied and a hybrid configuration is also proposed to rectify the disadvantages associated with the earlier two. Comparison is carried out for the aforementioned configurations along with comparison of coaxial and hybrid octocopters with bigger diameter rotors in the same confined space for high thrust requirement missions. Vertical spacing of coaxial configuration is also studied. Virtual Blade Method (VBM) is considered herein due to its great computational efficiency. The results show that there are 11.89% and 14.22% loss in thrust for coaxial octocopter compared to conventional and hybrid configurations with normal size rotors and 15.61% loss compared to hybrid configuration with bigger rotors in hover, whereas coaxial square configuration performs the worst in forward flight with a lift loss of 9.1%, 14.77% and 18.8% compared to coaxial diamond, conventional and hybrid configurations with normal size rotors and 9.96% and 17.82% loss compared to coaxial diamond and hybrid configurations with bigger rotors. Combined FM shows that hybrid configuration outperforms other octocopter configurations in overall aerodynamic performance.