Four plausible design concepts are applied together to investigate composite bend-twist propeller-blade designs that show high twisting per bending deflection. The design concepts are first explained on a simplified blade structure with limited unique geometric features to determine generalized principles for applying the considered design concepts. Then, the design concepts are applied to another propeller-blade geometry to obtain a bend-twist propeller-blade design that achieves a specific pitch change under an operational loading condition with a significant periodic-load variation. The final composite propeller design shows several times more bend-twist efficiency than other published bend-twist designs and shows a desirable pitch change during the periodic-load variation when loaded with a one-way fluid-structure-interaction-derived load case. The high pitch change suggests that the design would mitigate undesirable blade effects caused by load variations on the propeller during operation.
Keywords: FEA; bend–twist; composites; design; propellers.