Development of a Polyamide 6-Based Composite Material for UAV Propellers

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used in many industries thanks to their beneficial characteristics and propellers are one of the most important components of UAVs. Propellers transform rotary motion into linear thrust and they generally provide lift and thrust to the UAV by spinning and creating an airflow, which results in a pressure difference between the top and bottom surfaces of the propeller. During the life cycle of the propellers, they may receive impact loadings as a result of hard landings or bird strikes. Therefore, impact damage can occur in UAV propellers. Due to that reason, the impact resistance of the propellers must be improved. In this study, a composite material is designed to be used in the manufacture of UAV propellers. Polyamide 6 (PA6) is selected as the matrix material thanks to its superior abrasion resistance, outstanding dimensional stability, and high specific tensile strength. In order to improve the impact resistance of the PA6, olefin block copolymer (OBC) and carbon-based reinforcement including carbon nanotube (CNT) are planned to be used. Following the development of the composite formulation, composites are going to be manufactured and tensile tests, Charpy impact, and hardness tests were carried out to determine fundamental mechanical properties. Finally, optical microscopy was used to examine the CNT distribution in the manufactured composites.