THE GENERATION OF PROPELLER BLADE GEOMETRIES USING THE PDE METHOD

The representation of a propeller blade geometry is considered. Standa rd techniques of surface representation, such as B-spline interpolatio n, require a large number of control points to achieve this. The parti al differential equation (PDE) method approaches the representation of the blade as a boundary-valued problem which ensures that a fair surf ace is generated and, secondly, that a small set of design parameters is needed. The small parameter set is of importance, since we can firs tly manipulate the propeller design with ease, and secondly, use it to great advantage in the task of functional design.