Numerical investigation of propeller slipstream effects on high-lift aerodynamic configurations

To achieve rapid and accurate analysis of propeller slipstream effects on high-lift configurations, this study employed both the full blades method (FBM) and actuator disk method (ADM) for numerical simulations under advance ratios J = 0.7, 1.0 and angles of attack ranging from –4° to 24°. The results showed that although there were local differences in time-averaged actuator disk load distributions between isolated propellers and propellers integrated with high-lift configurations, the pressure distributions and lift/drag results obtained by applying these different load sources in ADM calculations were fundamentally consistent. The differences in overall lift coefficient did not exceed 4.3%, and drag coefficient deviations remain below 5.4%, demonstrating that using actuator disk loads from isolated propellers had minimal impact on full-aircraft aerodynamic calculations, thereby avoiding complex grid generation. By converting unsteady computations to steady-state solutions while maintaining equivalent grid resolution (33 million cells), ADM achieved results that closely match FBM before stall (α ＜ 20°), with computational time reduced to approximately 1/18 of FBM (170 vs. 3100 core-hours). The ADM method thus provides an efficient and reasonable approach for evaluating propeller slipstream effects on high-lift devices.