Project On UAV Design For Flight Competition in SAE Aero Design West-2013
Project On UAV Design For Flight Competition in SAE Aero Design West-2013
Project On UAV Design For Flight Competition in SAE Aero Design West-2013
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Project On UAV Design For Flight Competition in SAE Aero Design West-2013
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Abstract
In the modern era every nation desires to widen their observation or surveillance sector. UAV
(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) in recent years have been in the role of strategic observation. In this role
the UAV has significant capabilities to capture necessary information for the development of nation.
Also the low cost of manufacturing UAV is replacing manned operating aircraft day by day. This paper
will demonstrate the design and simulation of an UAV for the SAE Aero Design West 2013
Competition which was sponsored and managed by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission
Directorate in partnership with SAE International. Each year, SAE International hosts a competition to
design, construct and fly three types of remote controlled aircraft. The MIST students made an
endeavor to design a micro class aircraft to compete in this Competition. The project was started from
September 2012 and continues through competition in April 2013. During this period the team faced
many obstacles with design process, overall management, schedule meetings, team dynamics,
resolving communication issues and budget. Considering availability of technology, material and
skilled workmanship, this is the best design of a unique innovation to be proud of a developing nation
like Bangladesh.
Keywords: UAV, NACA 4412, Drag Coefficient, Lift Coefficient, Aerodynamic forces, ANSYS Fluent,
Solidworks flow simulation, SAE Aero Design.
1 INTRODUCTION
Aircraft design is both an art and a science. It is very sophisticated task associated with simultaneous
considerations of different variables. All the variables must be taken into account from the beginning of
the design phase. Basically, the design process is a scholar activity which should be done by good
perception and skillfulness. For aircraft, design phases are: conceptual, preliminary and detailed
design [1]. Until the preliminary design phase the structure is not considered. For this project the
design goal was to take off, cruise and then successfully land the designed UAV according to the
mission profile while carrying the highest payload fraction possible. The team reached at their aim
through aeronautical perspective which was met by applying the principles of aerodynamics,
propulsion, structural analysis and control engineering approach. Each of these areas involves
parameters that govern the size, shape, weight and performance of an aircraft. After designing the
model, flow behavior was analyzed through the simulation to develop knowledge about how aircraft
structure affects the aerodynamic property. Basically, the simulation technology gives the opportunity
to simulate any system to determine desired property with more accuracy before manufacturing to
avoid unanticipated expense. In most cases, the design objectives were fulfilled through optimization
to balance the different aspects based on mission requirements in the competition.
Structure Aerodynamics
Stability Propulsion
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the external structure for smooth flow over the body. Plywood was used for motor mounting
where adhesive used to fix it with the front portion. Filament tape and rubber band also used as
secondary attaching tool. For actuating the servo motor push rod was used. Again the UAV must
be capable of carrying and fully enclosing a rectangular block measuring 2 inches by 2 inches by
5 inches (minimum size). The payload must consist of a support assembly and payload plates.
• Flexibility of Design: Flexibility refers to the ability to modify the design easily. Again during the
inspection maximum three minutes time was given to assembly the UAV from the padded foam
carrying case by two people. So, flexibility of design was most important aspects for good
scoring.
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designs the wing attached to the fuselage, this lifting surface would lost. In high wing, less interference
drag might exist between the wing and fuselage. The critical stability aspects are listed below:
• Static Margin: The stability margin (S.M.) is expressed by equation: S.M=(xnp- xcg)/c. A small S.M.
was desired because any pitching moment caused by outside disturbances resulted in damping
affect that brought the UAV back to the trimmed level flight. Having a smaller static margin make
the UAV more responsive to elevator deflection, saving weight in servos and hinges. The UAV
static margin was 26.5% (without payload) and 12.2% (with payload) calculated [10].
• Center of Gravity: The center of gravity (CG) needs to be placed close to the aerodynamic center
(AC) for both empty weight and with payload (between 25-30% of the chord length behind the
leading edge). The UAV C.G. was 25.3% of chord from leading edge of wing for empty weight
and 39.5% of chord from leading edge of wing with payload along axis of aircraft on the plane of
symmetry [10]. Stability requires that the center of gravity (CG) must be located ahead of the
vehicle neutral point both with and without the payload. The most forward point of C.G of the UAV
was calculated 0.966 inch [10] behind the leading edge by using the following formulae.
And neutral point was calculated 3.26 inch [10] behind the leading edge using below formula.
• Tail Sizing: The tail’s main purpose is to keep the UAV longitudinally and laterally stable. Also the
surfaces must be large enough to house an effective elevator and rudder. The tail (horizontal)
volume ratio of the UAV was 0.794 which was an acceptable value for smaller UAV.
• Control Surface Sizing: The control surfaces were sized to provide enough control and should not
be so large that they add unneeded weight or strain on the UAV. Control surfaces should have
following criteria:
Elevator: The elevator must be large enough to trim the aircraft in all flight conditions. Using
suggested values from Raymer, the elevator should be 40% chord of the horizontal tail and
the team did so.
Rudder: The rudder must have enough authority to keep the UAV on the desired zone
during takeoff and landing. This is especially critical due to the common windy conditions.
Using the suggested values from Raymer, the aircraft rudder should be 40% chord of the
vertical tail. The team used rudder as 45.5% of tip chord of vertical tail for obtaining more
feedback during yawing.
°
Ailerons: The ailerons were sized to roll the aircraft during 180 turns according to the
mission profile. From Raymer, the ailerons size should be approximately 20% of the chord
and approximately 40% of the span. This is dependent on the location of the ailerons. The
team kept ailerons size 25% of chord and 50% of span and inboard flaps were not
considered for design since the lift of the chosen airfoil was adequate to support the UAV.
After analyzing different aspects, the model of the UAV was developed in Solidworks for the simulation
[11] to determine different flow parameters and monitor the result.
3 MODELING IN SOLIDWORKS
The following modeling of the UAV was drawn using commands loft boss, mirror, shell, extrude cut
etc. During meshing there were many possibilities of error due to intersect of two geometrical entities
each other which might be the great problem for later operation. That’s why very much care was taken
during sketching.
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Fig. 2: Solidworks 3D model
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(a) (b)
Fig. 5: (a) Mesh generation of enclosure in ANSYS Workbench & (b) Visualization of UAV body mesh
itself
After meshing of the enclosure it was imported to ANSYS Fluent. Then the flow analysis over the UAV
was done here. In ANSYS Fluent first the meshing of the enclosure was checked. Then the working
fluid selected air and the atmospheric condition was considered at an altitude of 100 ft. The density
was taken as constant (1.225 kg/m3) as it was low speed UAV. The boundary conditions applied
Mach number or velocity at inlet and pressure at the outlet of the enclosure. The speed of the UAV
was Mach 0.0315 at 100ft. Therefore, the inlet boundary condition for the enclosure was given as
Mach 0.0315 (velocity is equal to 10.71m/s). The outlet boundary condition was given as pressure and
it was 0 Pa. The rest of the faces of the enclosure were mentioned as wall (farfield). That means these
faces were under no-slip condition (zero velocity on these faces). So, the flow conditions would not
apply outside these walls. After setting the boundary conditions solution methods and controls were
set for simulation. The solution method was selected pressure based as it was low speed UAV and
flow was assumed as incompressible. And for the solution controls the courant number was set to
0.25 and the under relaxation factors for momentum and pressure were set as 0.75. The expected
graphical results were set to residuals. The residual results converged at 10 iterations in ANSYS
Fluent.
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Table1: The computational domain dimensions
X min -1.450 m
X max 1.450 m
Y min -0.300 m
Y max 0.300 m
Z min -0.600 m
Z max 0.600 m
Then after applying boundary conditions and necessary operating conditions of velocity and
atmospheric conditions such as pressure, temperature etc. solver was run for obtaining results.
Material Settings selected Fluids: Air. Thermodynamic parameters: Temperature: 287.96 K (100ft),
Static Pressure: 100960.00 Pa. Velocity parameters: Velocity in X direction: 10.710 m/s, Velocity in Y
direction: 0 m/s. The results converged after 392 iterations during Solidworks flow simulation.
(a) (b)
Fig. 9: Pressure contour through over the symmetry section in (a) isometric & (b) cut plot view
In the following fig. 10 the temperature distribution over the symmetry section of the body is shown. It
shows the high temperature result along the surface. With increasing distance from the surface
temperature is in the way of decreasing rate.
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(a) (b)
Fig. 10: Temperature distribution over the symmetry section in (a) isometric & (b) cut plot view
Fig. 11 shows the velocity distribution in cut plot. It indicates that the flow over the upper surface has
more velocity than lower surface which imply the pressure velocity relation of Bernoulli’s principle [5].
(a) (b)
Fig. 11: Temperature distribution over the symmetry section in (a) isometric & (b) cut plot view
Fig. 12: Flow trajectory of upper body surface Fig. 13: Flow trajectory of lower body surface
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Fig. 14: Pressure contour Fig. 15: Temperature distribution
6 RESULTS
Fig. 16 shows graph of force component [17] acting along X-direction (Roll axis according to
Solidworks sketching) and Y-direction (Yaw axis according to Solidworks sketching). Along X-direction
force component is 0.729765 N and along Y-direction force component is 0.999606 N. This Y-direction
component force is the resultant force along normal to the wing surface which is the desired average
lift for the given condition. It is seen that the flow result was converged after 690 iterations.
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Fig. 18: Component of shear force in Z direction
7 CONCLUSION
The area of miniature UAVs is reasonably active in the past few years. Because of limited size and
payload of the UAVs, the features like sizing, lightness and power consumption are the primary
issues. This paper has presented a method for design and then simulation of an UAV. As this paper
describes design only for airframe so the consideration aspects are kept limited within structural,
stability and aerodynamics of the UAV. After considering different aspects the simulation of the
designed structure was done for visualizing how it would be performed during flight by determining
different flight parameters. Then by analyzing different results the team was ensured that it would be
going to show an excellent performance. Basically the paper will give an overview how one should
proceed if he or she wants to design an UAV structure. More than simply a competition, SAE Aero
Design is meant to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply engineering
knowledge and pull toward obtaining their career goals. The project teaches the team to apply
engineering tradeoffs, systems engineering, component engineering and multidisciplinary teamwork.
th
The competition was from April 12-14, 2013. The team was secured 19 position.
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