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CAESES provides comprehensive functionality for propeller and fan designers so that it can be used as an expert blade design software. Basically, any kind of propeller blade (e.g. boat propeller, aircraft propeller, blowers, fans etc.) for any application can be created with it. CAESES focuses on the variable geometry of blades for design explorations and shape optimization (mostly, together with CFD). Here is a screenshot for an axial blade design, taken from one of the samples that are shipped with CAESES: For general information about modeling of propellers, see the MARINE SECTION. For other rotating machines, please see the TURBOMACHINERY SECTION. 2D PROFILES 2D profiles can be defined by the user. These can be either parametric (e.g. camber curve + thickness distribution) or based on profile data from an air foil data base. There are models available with special definitions such as Wageningen B-Series. NACA curves are also available in CAESES via the menu > curves > naca. When generating the 3D propeller surface, the profile parameters can be changed by means of radial functions for each 2D parameter (e.g. chord, camber, thickness). IMPORT AND EXPORT In order to import or export the blade in a proprietary format, feature definitions can be used which allows you cope with e.g. company-specific ASCII formats. The PFF (Propeller Free Format) is directly supported. EXTERNAL TOOL / CFD AUTOMATION Any preliminary design tool (XFOIL etc) or even CFD packages (in-house, open source, commercial) can be integrated so that a new design can be analyzed within CAESES. BLADE ANALYSIS There is a functionality that can analyze an imported blade surface (given as NURBS) to give you the chord, rake, skew, pitch, thickness and camber distributions. CUSTOMIZATION There is a lot of scripting possible in CAESES so that any specialized design process can be fully transferred into the platform. For instance, if you use Excel sheets for your profile definitions, you can access them through CAESES but also re-implement your methods using the feature definition programming editor. EXAMPLES Some propeller design case studies can be found in this section. If you are interested in drone design, then check out this post here. Here are some videos - the last one I put there only to give you an impression about how the geometry controls can be wrapped and accessed for applying changes, this can be done for all other types of blades as well. Wageningen Propeller ModelPropellerBlade Tip DesignGeometry Changes for an Axial Fan (and a Ship Hull) - Demo Video ONLINE TOOL Finally, check out the new online geometry creator for the Wageningen B-Series. Browser-based, intuitive web app.Allows you to generate typical B-Series propellers with just a few clicks.Requires very little propeller design expertise.The final geometry can be downloaded as STL or STEP file. LAST UPDATE JANUARY 2018 Note that there are FULL FREE ACADEMIC versions of the pro edition CAESES for students and PhD students as well as trial licenses with variable time frames. There are also special editions for small companies, start-ups and freelancers.

Hi, In order to understand your definition of pitch, skew and rake I have a couple of questions. In the documentation there is a profile and a picture showing the definitions, although its slightly confusing since the (by the look of it) the pitch definition is defined as the blade profile is rotating around max thickness when picth is altered. If that is the case then rake would be influenced and this is not the case when you model the blade by the curves in CAESES. Can you point out what the tho points in that picture represents, one should be the generator line and the other max thickness, but which is which? BR Daniel

Hi together, If you want to change the rotational direction of a propeller blade (type FGenericBlade), then you can simply switch the orientation. See the attachment for more information. Cheers Joerg