Comparative Study on the Performance of a Conventional Two-Blade and a Three-Blade Toroidal Propeller for UAVs

This paper presents an integrated study on the design, simulation, manufacturing, and experimental testing of a three-blade tritoroidal propeller compared to a conventional two-blade configuration for small UAVs. The aerodynamic analysis was performed in ANSYS Fluent 2022 R1 using the k–ω SST turbulence model at 6000 rpm, while structural integrity was assessed through FEM simulations in ANSYS Mechanical 2022 R1. Both propellers were fabricated via SLA additive manufacturing using Rigid 4000 resin and evaluated on an RCbenchmark 1585 test stand. The CFD results revealed smoother flow attachment and reduced tip vortex intensity for the tritoroidal geometry, while FEM analyses confirmed lower deformation and a more uniform stress distribution. Experimental tests showed that the tritoroidal propeller produces thrust comparable to the conventional one (within 1%) but at a 58% higher torque, resulting in slightly lower efficiency. However, vibration amplitude decreased by up to 70%, and the SPL was reduced by 0.1–6.2 dB at low and moderate speeds. These results validate the tritoroidal concept as a structurally robust and acoustically efficient alternative, with strong potential for optimization in low-noise UAV propulsion systems.