Darius Carter
Assistant Professor
- Phone: (919) 515-5261
- Email: darius_carter@ncsu.edu
- Office: Engineering Building III (EB3) 4176
Dr. Carter received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Virginia in 2017. He also received a Ph.D. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2021. He was a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Aerospace Engineering department at Georgia Institute of Technology under Juergen Rauleder. At NCSU, he teaches MAE 452 (Aerodynamics of VSTOL) & MAE 252 (Aerodynamics). Dr. Carter enjoys playing basketball, volunteering, watching movies, and learning about new topics when not in the lab.
His current research involves understanding near-boundary flight regimes for multirotor vehicles. Near-boundary flight has both performance benefits and penalties for rotorcraft vehicles. His research looks to unlock the underlying aerodynamics to optimize the performance benefits for a vehicle in near-boundary flight. He is also investigating aerodynamic interactions of a multirotor, whether between two vehicles or multiple rotors interacting on a single platform. His research is done experimentally using wind tunnels and hover platforms.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Near and complex boundary flight for multirotor vehicles, Multirotor aerodynamic interactions, Fluid-structure interactions, Wind Energy, Urban Air Mobility, & Multiple Air Vehicle performance
Publications
- Investigating the Effect of Wind Gusts on Flow in Urban Airspace Using a Wind Gust Generator
- Gillespie, J., & Carter, D. (2025), AIAA SCITECH 2025 Forum. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2025-1126
- Rotor Aerodynamics in Boundary Layer Flow With Ground Effect
- Deneke, J. A., & Carter, D. (2025), AIAA SCITECH 2025 Forum. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2025-1266
- Multirotor Wake and Turbulence in the Presence of Crossflow Gust
- Deneke, J. A., & Carter, D. J. (2024), AIAA AVIATION FORUM AND ASCEND 2024. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-3523
- Near Boundary Multirotor Interactional Aerodynamics
- Carter, D., Atte, A., & Rauleder, J. (2024), AIAA SCITECH 2024 Forum. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-1723
- Using ground effect to model the performance of small near-water rotors
- Carter, D., Zhong, Q., & Quinn, D. (2024), AIAA SCITECH 2024 Forum. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-0245
- Multirotor Interactional Aerodynamics with Boundary Effects
- Carter, D., & Rauleder, J. (2023), AIAA AVIATION 2023 Forum. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-3237
- How water and solid boundaries affect the dynamics of a hovering rotor
- Carter, D., Zhong, Q., & Quinn, D. (2021), Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics. Presented at the Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics.
- Influence of the Ground, Ceiling, and Sidewall on Micro-Quadrotors
- Carter, D. J., Bouchard, L., & Quinn, D. B. (2021), AIAA Journal, 59(4), 1398–1405. https://doi.org/10.2514/1.j059787
- Exploiting Ground and Ceiling Effects on Autonomous UAV Motion Planning
- Gao, S., Franco, C. D., Carter, D., Quinn, D., & Bezzo, N. (2019), 2019 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS). https://doi.org/10.1109/icuas.2019.8798091
- Scaling effects on aerodynamic interactions of rotorcraft around boundaries
- Carter, D., Mazzatenta, M., Gao, S., Di Franco, C., Bezzo, N., & Quinn, D. (2019), Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics. Presented at the Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics.
