Deployable annular propeller and cross-domain aircraft
Technical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of cross-domain aircrafts, in particular to an expandable annular propeller and a cross-domain aircrafts.
Background
The cross-domain aircraft is a new concept aircraft capable of performing cross-domain navigation in various medium environments, for example, an underwater air-to-air cross-domain aircraft disclosed in China patent CN113928068A, which can fly under water and in the air. Especially, when the application scene of the unmanned aerial vehicle is wider and wider at present, the cross-domain navigation unmanned aerial vehicle has wider application prospect in military and civil aspects.
Unmanned aerial vehicles can navigate, the propeller plays a main propulsion role, and at present, the unmanned aerial vehicle uses the annular propeller to propel gradually to become a hot spot. The advantage of the annular propeller over the conventional non-annular propeller is that it can double its propulsive efficiency with the same number of blades. However, the application of the annular propeller on the cross-domain navigation unmanned aerial vehicle encounters some problems:
Firstly, the physical parameters of water and air have larger difference, and the running state and the propelling performance of the annular propeller in two media can be obviously different.
Secondly, when the unmanned aerial vehicle sails underwater, the rotating surface of the propeller is vertical and provides propelling force in the horizontal direction. The rotating surface of the propeller can be horizontal and provide vertical lifting force when the unmanned aerial vehicle sails in the air, and the rotating surface of the propeller can also be vertical and pass through horizontal jet thrust. Annular propellers are typically used as propellers that provide lift and are not suitable for use as propellers that provide jet thrust. Therefore, the cross-domain navigation unmanned aerial vehicle is not suitable for adopting the annular propeller as a propulsion power source, and the application scene of the annular propeller is limited.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above, the invention provides an expandable annular propeller and a cross-domain aircraft, which solve the problem that a cross-domain unmanned aerial vehicle is not suitable for adopting the annular propeller as a propulsion power source.
The technical scheme is that the expandable annular propeller comprises a hub, a plurality of paddles and a locking part, wherein the central axis of the hub is the rotation axis of the annular propeller, the paddles are arranged on the peripheral wall of the hub around the central axis, the locking part is arranged on the peripheral wall of the hub, the paddles are made of flexible materials, the paddles are bent and deformed into a first shape or rebound and reset into a second shape, one ends of the paddles are fixedly connected with the peripheral wall of the hub and are arranged as roots, the other ends of the paddles are free ends and are arranged as tips, the paddles are in the first shape and bent into an annular shape, the tips are connected with the locking part, the locking part releases the tips, and the paddles are switched to the second shape.
On the basis of the above technical solution, it is preferable that the tip and the locking portion are connected by an explosion bolt.
On the basis of the technical scheme, preferably, the peripheral wall of the hub is provided with a slot, a locking part is arranged in the slot, the blade is in a first form and is bent into a ring shape, the tip is inserted into the slot and is connected with the locking part, and the blade is switched to a second form and is led to exit from the slot.
Still more preferably, the blade comprises a blade, a bone rod and a locking part, wherein one end of the blade is fixedly connected with the peripheral wall of the hub, the other end of the bone rod extends to form a tip, the bone rod penetrates into the blade, one end of the bone rod is fixedly connected with the peripheral wall of the hub, the other end of the bone rod extends to the tail end of the tip, the blade is made of flexible materials and can be elastically deformed, the bone rod is made of one-way shape memory alloy, the tip is connected with the locking part, the bone rod is subjected to bending deformation and drives the blade to deform, the blade is in a first form, the locking part releases the tip, and the bone rod is heated to deform and drive the blade to deform again along with the one-way shape memory effect, so that the blade is switched to a second form.
Still more preferably, the device further comprises a heating mechanism arranged in the hub and electrically connected with the bone rod, wherein the heating mechanism is used for heating the bone rod and deforming the bone rod by the one-way memory effect.
Still more preferably, when the blade is bent into a ring shape, the annular inner ring profile is taken as an inner edge, and the bone rod is penetrated in the blade along the inner edge.
Still more preferably, the locking part comprises two telescopic mechanisms symmetrically arranged in the slot and respectively aligned with two blade surfaces of the tip, and two clamping blocks respectively connected with the two telescopic mechanisms and driven by the telescopic mechanisms to move towards or away from the blade surfaces of the tip, wherein the two clamping blocks simultaneously move towards and clamp the tip, or the two clamping blocks simultaneously move away from each other and release the tip.
Still more preferably, the locking part further comprises a pull rope mechanism arranged at the bottom of the slot, wherein a through hole is formed in the blade, one end of the through hole is communicated with the outside, the other end of the through hole extends towards the free end of the bone rod and exposes out the end of the bone rod, the pull rope mechanism is connected with the end of the bone rod through a pull rope penetrating through the through hole, and the pull rope mechanism pulls the bone rod through the pull rope and enables the bone rod to be stressed and deformed, or the pull rope is released by the pull rope mechanism.
On the basis of the above technical solution, preferably, the root is disposed at a position near the downstream of the hub with the downstream direction of the annular propeller as the positive direction, and the tip is bent into an annular shape toward the position near the upstream of the hub.
On the other hand, the invention also provides a cross-domain aircraft, which adopts the expandable annular propeller, when the cross-domain aircraft sails underwater, the blades are in the first form and are bent into a ring shape, the tips are connected with the locking parts, and when the cross-domain aircraft sails in the air, the locking parts release the tips, and the blades are switched to the second form.
The invention relates to a deployable annular propeller and a cross-domain aircraft, which have the following compared with the prior art
The beneficial effects are that:
(1) The annular propeller blade is made of flexible materials and can be elastically deformed, the tip of the annular propeller blade is bent into an annular shape and fixed on the locking part, the formed annular propeller blade is more suitable for a scene of a cross-domain aircraft sailing under water, when the tip of the annular propeller blade is separated from the control of the locking part, the annular propeller blade is reset and deformed into a non-annular propeller blade, the annular propeller blade is more suitable for a scene of the cross-domain aircraft sailing in the air, and the annular structure of the annular propeller blade is switched to the non-annular structure according to the switching of the cross-domain scene by the annular propeller blade, so that the universality of the annular propeller blade is improved.
(2) According to the invention, the bone rod made of the one-way shape memory alloy is arranged in the blade of the blade, and the function of converting the blade from an annular structure to a non-annular structure is realized through the forced deformation bending and the one-way deformation resetting of the bone rod after being heated, so that the invention is suitable for the blade made of metal or plastic materials.
(3) The cross-domain aircraft only passes through the water cross-domain to the air, so that the problem that the blades are retracted again after being unfolded and converted from the annular structure to the non-annular structure is not needed to be considered, the single-pass form change of the annular propeller is realized through the variable design of the blades, and the applicability and the universality of the annular propeller in the cross-domain aircraft are improved.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings that are required in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly described, it being obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the invention, and that other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the ring propeller of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of a blade tip of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the ring propeller of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a side view of another embodiment of the ring propeller of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a top view in cross-section of another embodiment of the ring propeller of the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a partial cutaway plan view of a blade of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is an enlarged view at A in FIG. 6;
fig. 8 is a partial cross-sectional view of the locking portion of the present invention.
In the figure, 1, a hub, 101, a slot, 2, a blade, 21, a blade, 22, a bone rod, 201, a root, 202, a tip, 203, a through hole, 3, a locking part, 31, a telescopic mechanism, 32, a clamping block, 33, a guy cable mechanism, 301, an explosion bolt and 4, and a heating mechanism.
Detailed Description
The following description of the embodiments of the present invention will clearly and fully describe the technical aspects of the embodiments of the present invention, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without making any inventive effort, are intended to fall within the scope of the present invention.
As shown in fig. 1, an expandable ring propeller of the present invention includes a hub 1, blades 2, and a locking portion 3.
Wherein the central axis of the hub 1 is the rotation axis of the annular propeller.
A number of blades 2 are arranged on the peripheral wall of the hub 1 around a central axis. The blade 2 is made of a flexible material, specifically, a shape memory alloy material may be used, so that the blade 2 has the capability of bending to change to the first shape or rebound to return to the second shape, one end of the blade 2 is fixedly connected with the peripheral wall of the hub 1 and is set as a root 201, and the other end of the blade 2 is set as a free end and is set as a tip 202. Since the blade 2 needs to have good deformation performance, and the blade 2 still has good streamline outer contour after deformation under the condition of switching the first form and the second form, the thickness of the blade 2 needs to be thin and in a sheet shape.
The locking portion 3 is provided on the outer peripheral wall of the hub 1. The blade 2 is in the first configuration and bent into a ring shape, the tip 202 is connected to the locking portion 3, the locking portion 3 releases the tip 202, and the blade 2 switches to the second configuration.
The principle of the present application is that when the blade 2 is connected to the locking part 3 at the tip 202, the blade 2 is in the first configuration by adopting the annular propeller structure, and the annular propeller is suitable for a scene sailing in water, and after the sailing scene of the cross-domain craft is changed, the locking part 3 releases the tip 202, which can be regarded as that the annular structure of the blade 2 is disconnected at the tip 202, so that the blade 2 can be switched to the second configuration by deformation, the blade 2 in the second configuration is converted into the non-annular structure, and the annular propeller is suitable for a scene sailing in air. However, in this solution, the blades 2 have only the ability to change from the first annular shape to the second non-annular shape and to be deployed and deformed, but not to be retracted, so that the annular propeller of the present application, when applied to a cross-domain craft, only needs to take into account the situation of sailing from mid-water to mid-air, and not the situation of sailing back into the water.
In a preferred embodiment shown in fig. 2, in order to achieve the connection state switchable performance of the tip 202 of the blade 2 to or from the locking portion 3, the tip 202 and the locking portion 3 are connected by an explosion bolt 301. The explosion bolt 301 is a connection bolt between a booster and a rocket body used in the aerospace field. In addition, the connection mode of the embodiment is suitable for the condition that the blade 2 is made of metal, and the blade 2 of the embodiment has good structural strength and is suitable for large-scale aircrafts.
In a preferred embodiment shown in fig. 3, the tip 202 of the blade 2 is connected with the locking part 3 in another way, the peripheral wall of the hub 1 is provided with a slot 101, the locking part 3 is arranged in the slot 101, the blade 2 is in a first form and is bent into a ring shape, the tip 202 is inserted into the slot 101 and is connected with the locking part 3, and the blade 2 is switched to a second form and the tip 202 is withdrawn from the slot 101. The connection mode of this embodiment is suitable for the case that the blade 2 is made of plastic material or high polymer material.
In a preferred embodiment shown in fig. 6, in order to provide the blade 2 with deformation properties and also to provide the blade 2 with a good structural strength, in order to avoid structural deformation of the blade 2 during high-speed rotation, the blade 2 comprises a blade 21 and a bone shaft 22.
Wherein one end of the blade 21 is fixedly connected with the peripheral wall of the hub 1 and the other end extends to a tip 202. The blade 21 is made of a flexible material and is capable of elastic deformation, and has high elasticity and plasticity, and specifically, a styrene-based thermoplastic elastomer TPS, an olefin-based thermoplastic elastomer TPO, TPV, or the like may be used.
A bone rod 22 is inserted into the blade 21, one end of the bone rod 22 is fixedly connected with the peripheral wall of the hub 1 and the other end extends to the end of the tip 202. The bone shaft 22 is made of a one-way shape memory alloy, which is a nickel-titanium shape memory alloy material such as titanium-nickel-copper, titanium-nickel-iron, titanium-nickel-chromium, etc., or a copper-nickel alloy, a copper-aluminum alloy, a copper-zinc alloy, an iron alloy, etc. When the blade 2 is in an annular structure, the tip 202 is connected with the locking part 3, so that the bone rod 22 is subjected to forced bending deformation and drives the blade 21 to deform, and the blade 2 is in a first form, and when the locking part 3 is released from the tip 202, the bone rod 22 is heated to deform and drive the blade 21 to deform again, so that the blade 2 is switched to a second form, and the bone rod 22 is made of a one-way shape memory alloy material, so that the bone rod 22 cannot shrink again to return to the stressed bending deformation form after the temperature is reduced, and the blade 2 is in a non-annular structure.
In a preferred embodiment, shown in fig. 6, a heating mechanism 4 is also included in order to raise the temperature of the bone shaft 22 to deform it.
The heating mechanism 4 is a thermocouple, the heating mechanism 4 is arranged in the hub 1 and is electrically connected with the bone rod 22, and the heating mechanism 4 is used for heating the bone rod 22 and deforming the bone rod 22 by a one-way memory effect. In order to avoid adverse effects on the hub 1 when the heating mechanism 4 works, the heating mechanism 4 is wrapped in a heat insulating material and then is installed in the hub 1.
In a preferred embodiment shown in fig. 6, when the blade 2 is bent into a ring shape, the annular inner ring contour is taken as an inner edge, the bone rod 22 penetrates into the blade 21 along the inner edge, under the design, the bone rod 22 is closer to the inner edge of the annular blade 2, so that the length of the bone rod 22 is shorter, meanwhile, after the blade 2 is deformed into a non-annular structure, the bone rod 22 is closer to the trailing edge position of the blade 2, on the one hand, the bone rod can be regarded as the back spine of the blade 2, so that the blade 2 has better structural strength, on the other hand, the trailing edge thickness of the blade 2 is larger than the leading edge thickness, and the effect that the streamline outer contour of the blade 2 conforms to the rotating direction of the propeller is avoided by arranging the bone rod 22 on the leading edge of the blade 2.
In a preferred embodiment shown in fig. 8, the locking portion 3 comprises a telescopic mechanism 31 and a clamping block 32 for fixing the annular structure of the blade 2 when the tip 202 of the blade 2 is inserted in the slot 101.
Wherein the two telescopic mechanisms 31 are symmetrically arranged in the slot 101 and respectively aligned with the two blade surfaces of the tip 202. The telescopic mechanism 31 may be a telescopic air bar.
The two clamping blocks 32 are respectively connected with the two telescopic mechanisms 31 and are driven by the telescopic mechanisms 31 to move towards or away from the blade surfaces of the tips 202, and the two clamping blocks 32 simultaneously move towards each other and clamp the tips 202 or the two clamping blocks 32 simultaneously move away from each other and release the tips 202. To avoid damage to the blade 2, the clamping block 32 may be a rubber block.
In a preferred embodiment shown in fig. 7, if the blade 2 is clamped by only two clamping blocks 32 to achieve its fixation, the blade 2 is essentially locked by friction force at this time, and it is difficult to avoid the problem that the tip 202 is separated from the slot 101 due to centrifugal force during rotation of the blade 2, and the locking portion 3 further includes a cable mechanism 33.
Wherein, the blade 21 is provided with a through hole 203, one end of the through hole 203 is communicated with the outside, and the other end of the through hole 203 extends towards the free end of the bone rod 22 and exposes the end of the bone rod 22.
The cable mechanism 33 is provided at the bottom of the slot 101. The stay mechanism 33 is connected to the end of the bone rod 22 by a stay passing through the through hole 203, and the stay mechanism 33 pulls the bone rod 22 by the stay and deforms the bone rod 22 by force, or the stay mechanism 33 releases the stay.
In a preferred embodiment shown in fig. 4, with the downstream direction of the annular propeller being the positive direction, the root 201 is disposed at a position near the downstream of the hub 1, the tip 202 is bent into a ring shape toward the upstream of the hub 1, at which time the root 201 and the tip 202 can be regarded as the front blade root and the rear blade root of the annular blade 2, and in general, the blade 2 is restricted from being broken from the rear blade root (i.e., the tip 202) and deformed into a non-annular structure, at which time the leading edge and the trailing edge of the original annular blade 2 are simultaneously converted into the leading edge of the non-annular blade 2, and the inner annular contour edge of the original annular blade 2 is converted into the trailing edge of the non-annular blade 2, at which time the streamline outer contour of the non-annular blade 2 follows the rotation direction of the propeller. If the blade 2 is disconnected from the front blade root (i.e. the root 201) and is deformed into a non-annular structure, the leading edge and trailing edge of the original annular blade 2 are simultaneously converted into the trailing edge of the non-annular blade 2, so that the streamline outer contour of the non-annular blade 2 is opposite to the rotating direction of the propeller.
As shown in figure 1, in combination with figure 5, the cross-domain aircraft of the invention adopts the expandable annular propeller in any embodiment, and mainly refers to a water-air cross-domain aircraft, in particular to an unmanned aerial vehicle which flies under water and then enters the air from the water, and then the unmanned aerial vehicle can stop on a land or ship deck, so that the condition that the unmanned aerial vehicle returns to the water from the air for sailing is not considered. Thus, when the cross-domain craft is sailing underwater, the blade 2 is in the first configuration and is bent into a ring, the blade 2 forms a ring-shaped blade structure, the tip 202 being connected with the locking portion 3, and when the cross-domain craft is required to sail in the air, the locking portion 3 releases the tip 202, the tip 202 of the blade 2 is unlocked, the blade 2 is switched to the second configuration, the blade 2 forms a non-ring-shaped structure, and then the blade 2 does not need to have the ability to be deformed from the non-ring-shaped structure back to the ring-shaped structure, since the craft is not in the water.
The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention is not intended to be limiting, but rather is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, alternatives, and improvements that fall within the spirit and scope of the invention.