ICEM blocking/meshing for quadcopter propeller
 

Hi guys,

I am fairly new to CFD and has just recently started doing tutorials on meshing in ICEM. For my project, I would like to do some flow simulation on rotating quadcopter propeller using overset grid, and I would like to generate a structured mesh on the propeller (see pic1.png). So far I have done the following tutorial (only one I found that is closest to what I want to do) and have a rough idea of how to use ICEM to mesh and do blocking.

meshing for airfoil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVyvEH-u0wQ

Unfortunately I am unable to find examples related to quadcopter propeller meshing, hence I have the following questions:

1. pic2.png is a propeller that I want to mesh. So I understand how to do blocking on the airfoil part, but how do I block on the cylindrical hub part?? How would you block the intersection between the airfoil and the hub?

2. Since I dont actually care about the air flow around the hub area too much, would it be ok if I just simplify the cylindrical hub to a rectangular one instead? so that blocking is much easier.

3. Eventually I would need to use this propeller in my CFD sim. ASSUMING somehow I can re-draw that propeller in CAD :'( how can I do blocking on the twisted blade :(???

4. If I do this with unstructured mesh life would probably be easier, but I feel like using a structured mesh is more beneficial (faster?) to use with overset grid. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Here is a link to some typical multirotor propellers on the market and how they generally look like in case you dont know.

Sorry I dont have much to show what I have done so far as I am not too sure how to start! So any help/advice would be appreciated!! :)

Thanks,
Calvin

deal with hub or simply hub
twist