SHRI RAMDEOBABA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

Aircraft Design & Flight Path Optimizaton of

Low Altitude Long Endurance glider

Guide: Prof. G. R. Nikhade

Group Members-
29 - Gaurav Wadibhasme
73 - Vaibhav Barde
76 - Yugal Birzare
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
3. AIM & OBJECTIVES
4. APPROACH/METHODOLOGY
5. DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
6. CLIMB & GLIDE PHASE DATA
7. SELECTION OF ELECTRONICS
8. WEIGHT ESTIMATION
9. XFOIL ANALYSIS
10.SOLAR ENERGY MANAGEMENT
11.RESULT AND DISCUSSION
12.CONCLUSION
13. REFERENCES
 1. INTRODUCTION
❖ What is a Solar UAV glider?
❖ Uses Solar energy instead of fuel
❖ Solar cells are arranged on wing, horizontal and
vertical tail
❖ Solar energy is stored in rechargeable battery

❖ Classifications of long endurance

aircrafts -
➢ HALE (High altitude long endurance)
■ Height - 9000 m and above
■ Example - zephyr, PHASA-35
➢ MALE (Medium altitude long endurance)
■ Height - 3000m - 9000m
■ Example - SPACOM
➢ LALE (Low altitude long endurance)
■ Height - 0m - 3000m
■ Example - AtlantikSolar
Aircraft Design Projects for engineering students Lloyd R. Jenkinson,James F. Marchman III Publication - Butterworth-Heinemann, year 2003
WHAT A LONG ENDURANCE UAV IS CAPABLE OF?
● Aircraft possessing the capability to monitor for long periods and operate from remote
bases.
The roles may include-
1) Maritime patrol
2) Drug law enforcement
3) Remote high-value facility protection
4) Civil disorder
5) Border control and police surveillance
6) Traffic intelligence
7) Environmental protection
8) Disaster management
9) low-cost telecommunication

● We are focusing on a aircraft which will be used for environmental protection activities
such as forest surveillance.
Literature Review
Conceptual and ● Fly for indefinite period of time as long as it has an
Preliminary Design energy storage system to maintain its flight & other
of a Long Endurance activities.
Electric UAV [1] ● It is an UAV for short airfield surveillance, endurance of
8hrs and range of 200Kms, weight of 6.9kgs.
Performance ● LALE UAV with optimum speed for max. range.
Analysis and Flight ● In DATCOM drag model, drag coeff. Of landing gear was
Testing for Low not included. They added this and saw a change in the
Altitude Long cruise condition values.
Endurance
Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles [2]
Design of small ● AtlantikSolar, 6.9Kg, hand launchable LALE UAV.
hand-launched ● 81 hrs continuous flight, a world record for LALE UAV till
solar-powered now.
UAVs:From concept
study to a multi-day
world endurance
record flight [3]

MARAAL: A Low ● Fixed Wing UAV’s more efficient than rotary wings.
Altitude Long ● Wing span = 5.35m; max. Endurance = 18hrs; max 6 kg
Endurance Solar payload capacity.
powered UAV For ● IIT KANPUR, INDIA
Surveillance and
Mapping
Applications [4]
RESEARCH GAP IN LITERATURE REVIEW

Minimum sink rate - it is the min.

Vertical speed of the glider in still air.

Sailing
OBJECTIVES
● Design Low Altitude
Long Endurance UAV
Aircraft that will fly for
long flight time
(about 12 hours) with
low-power energy
consumption.
● Using minimum sink
rate flying
● Sailing (off-motor
flying)
● Adoption of Sailplane
design

Fig. Flight Profile

4. APPROACH
Defining the design problem statement
Problem – Poaching of Animals
Solution – Long Endurance
Conceptual design Surveillance by a fixed wing UAV.

Design P.S. –
Preliminary design Time of Flight – 10 Hrs
Altitude – 1000m
Selection of electronics Area Covered – 292 Sq.Km

Stability Analysis

Iterations
4. APPROACH
Defining the design problem statement

Conceptual design

Preliminary design

Selection of electronics

Stability Analysis

Iterations
4. METHODOLOGY
Defining the design problem statement

Conceptual design

Preliminary design

Selection of electronics

Stability Analysis

Iterations
4. METHODOLOGY
Defining the design problem statement

Conceptual design Actuators - BLDC electric motor,

Servo motor
Sensors - gyroscope,
Preliminary design accelerometer,
magnetometer,
Selection of electronics barometric pressure sensor,
differential pressure sensor (pitot
tube),
Stability Analysis temperature sensor

Iterations
4. APPROACH
Defining the design problem statement

Conceptual design

Preliminary design

Selection of electronics
CG analysis
Stability Analysis XFOIL analysis

Iterations
METHODOLOGY
DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
Parameters Value

Wing Span 5m

Wing Chord 0.35 m

Wing Area 1.75 m2

Fin Area 0.058 m2

Horizontal
0.184 m2
Stab Area

Total mass 5.5 kg

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
Sr no. PARAMETERS VALUE 10 Horizontal Stab Ar. 0.184 m2

1 Wing span 5m 11 Horizontal tail plane airfoil(HT) NACA 0009

2 Chord 0.35m 12 Vertical tail plane airfoil(VT) NACA 0009

3 Wing Airfoil NACA 4409 13 Root chord(HT) 0.21 m

4 Wing Area 1.75 m2 14 Tip chord(HT) 0.21 m

5 Aileron Area 0.09 m2 15 Root Chord(VT) 0.1936 m

6 Aileron Dimension 0.09*1 m2 16 Tip chord(VT) 0.1936m

7 Rudder Area 0.0145 m2 17 Sweep Angle HT 0 deg

8 Elevator Area 0.046 m2 18 Sweep Angle VT 0 deg

9 Fin Area 0.058 m2 19 Total Weight 5.5 kg

Table. Detailed design specifications

CLIMB PHASE
Input parameters Values

Angle of Climb (θ) 100, 20˚, 30˚, 45˚

Weight of Aircraft (W) 55 N

Motor Efficiency (𝜂𝑚) 89 %

Motor Efficiency (𝜂𝑚) 44.8 %

CLIMB PHASE
Climb angle (θ)
 
Parameters 10˚ 20˚ 30˚ 45˚

Motor Electric Power (Pelec) 178.072 W 329.797 W 456.786 W 575.840 W

Total Electric Power (Pelec tot) 183.252 W 334.977 W 461.966 W 581.02 W

1000 m climb

Time of climb(t) 834.72 sec 433.83 sec 309.12 sec 243.01 sec

Total Climb Energy (Eclimb tot) 152.96 kJ 145.32 kJ 142.80 kJ 141.19 kJ

700 m climb

Time of climb(t) 584.30 sec 303.68 sec 216.38 sec 170.10 sec

Total Climb Energy (Eclimb tot) 107.07 kJ 101.72 kJ 99.96 kJ 98.83 kJ

GLIDE PHASE
• What is gliding?
• Minimum sink rate
• Minimum angle of descent

FIGURE. Velocity vectors for Minimum sink rate glide

ELECTRONICS

MPPT Battery Power Module

Solar Panels

Pixhawk 4
ESC

Camera

Servo
Motor
MULTIPLE
SENSORS
SOLAR PANEL INFORMATION
• SunPower C60
• Mass: 6.5 grams
• Max volt: 0.6 volt
• Max power: 3.55 watt
• Efficiency: 22%
• Total cells: 72
• Max Total power: 255.6 watt
• Max voltage: 21.6 volt
Fig. Solar cell dimensions
Battery selection

•The 4200 mAh 3S LiPo batteries were used as the energy storage
system.

•Instead of one, two LiPo batteries in parallel connection were

selected to increase the resulting capacity to 93.24 Wh, satisfying
the following condition expressed in equation[1]-
[E(battery)/E(climb)] > 1.2
WEIGHT ESTIMATION

• Fixed Masses
• Communication Mass
• Payload Mass
Classification • Ascertainable Masses
of Masses • Propulsion
• Control Actuator
• Estimated Masses
• Empty weight Estimation
AIRFRAME MASS ESTIMATION

● Empty weight correlation model

Total Weight Estimated :5.5 Kg Fig. Mass of airframe vs wing area

Empty Weight Estimation
Wing Construction Types.
● Foam Cored Construction
● Moulded Construction
● Rib Construction

Total Mass Estimation

Total Weight Estimated :5.6 Kg

XFOIL ANALYSIS
● XFoil Analysis for NACA 4409
○ Reynold Number= 128848
○ Span = 5m
○ Chord = 0.35m
○ Weight = 5.5 kg

● Graph Significance
○ Cl/CD vs AOA
○ Cl vs AOA
○ Cd vs AOA
○ Cm vs AOA

● xflr 5 software(http://www.xflr5.tech/xflr5.htm)
Cl/Cd vs AOA

(Cl/Cd)max = 79.854 at 6.5

● Relation Between
Lift ,Drag and
AOA.
● It is help to Give
Maximum Glider
Ratio.
Cl vs AOA

(Cl)max = 1.342 at 10.5

● Lift Coefficient
according to
Angle of attack
● Lift is generally
connect with
stability.
Cd vs AOA

(Cd)minn = 0.011 at 0

● It gives us the
value of drag
coefficient
according to Angle
of attack.
Cm vs AOA

● Moment on the
wing of airplane.
● Helps in locating
aerodyanamic
point.
CG Estimation
CG Estimation
• Executed by hit and trial
Method.
• COGx = -0.052m
• COGy = 0.001m
• COGz = -0.021m
Stability Analysis
• Plane Stability based :- • Condition For Stability
• CG-Center of Gravity • Result:- X_CP=0.112
• NP- Neutral Point
• AC-Aerodynamic Stable X_CG=-0.052
Cm = -0.307
Solar Energy Management-
● Energy Collection subsystem overall efficiency-

● Since the solar panels are attached to the top surface of the wings,
the wing angle made with the horizontal when climbing or gliding
will be the angle of inclination of the solar panels.
● The PVsyst software was used to find the global irradiance of the
clear sky at Nagpur, (Lat. 21.0900° N, long. 79.0500° E) for climb
angle of 45°and glide angle of 2.67°
FIGURE: Plane Clear Sky Global Irradiance on 45° tilt panel

FIGURE: Plane Clear Sky Global Irradiance on 2.67˚ tilt panel

 FIGURE: Variation in Angle of Wing with Horizontal for required Flight profile during Solar Time

FIGURE: Electric Solar Power available with respect to FIGURE: Electric Power required by solar UAV with respect to
Solar Time. Solar Time
FIGURE: Total Solar Electric Energy Available with Solar Time FIGURE: Total Energy required by the Solar UAV with Solar Time
Result and Discussion
● To fulfill the requirement of 581.02 W power, the BLDC motor
of 775 kv with a 15” x 8” propeller has been selected.
● Total Power required at any stage-

● Minimum sink rate velocity = 6.91 m/s

● Minimum angle of descent = 2.67°.
● Glide from 1000 m to 300 m altitude
Time taken = 36.344 min
Distance = 15.046 km.
 FIGURE: Flight Profile of Solar UAV

FIGURE: Comparison of available and required energy

● For the entire mission day, the total solar energy that can be utilized
is 1,400.3 Wh.
● Aircraft's total energy consumption is 487.58 Wh for 10 hours (8am
to 6pm).
● So, the remaining solar energy is 912.72 Wh and battery has a
capacity of 93.24 Wh which is suited for 10 hrs endurance.
● If the energy storage increases to 912 Wh, the UAV can fly for 15
more hours.
● This would certainly power the aircraft throughout the night and a
continuous cycle of charging and discharging would allow the
aircraft to continue its flight continuously for days and months. Due
to low power consumption flight path, we ended up with so much
availability of extra solar energy to absorb.
Conclusion-
This Research project presented the Aircraft Design & Optimization of the
generated flight path for low energy consumption of a solar powered fixed
wing UAV. In particular, it introduced the concept of minimum sink rate
glide for low energy consumption for a solar UAV and also validated the
availability of excess solar power for the mission. A unique flight path has
been achieved to minimize energy consumption and maximize endurance.
RESEARCH PAPER
Accepted in ICRAINS 2021 International conference

Topic: A Flight Path for Low Energy Consumption Using Minimum Sink Rate Glide for Solar
Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Authors:
Vaibhav Barde
Yugal Birzare
Gaurav Wadibhasme
Dr. G. R. Nikhade
Dr. Y. M. Sonkhaskar
12. REFERENCES
Books
1. SNORRI GUDMUNDSSON. General Aviation Aircraft Design: Applied Methods and
Procedures. 2014 Elsevier
2. MichaelS. Selig. Selig catalogue vol 1, 2 & 3
3. Andrew J. Keane, András Sóbester, James P. Scanlan.SMALL UNMANNED FIXED-WING
AIRCRAFT DESIGN A Practical Approach. 2017 John Wiley & Sons
4. John D. Anderson. Introduction to Flight. 2010 Tata McGraw Hill
5. Fred Thomas. Fundamentals of Sailplane Design.
6. John M. Allen. Glider Flying Handbook. 2013 FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION
7. Lloyd R. Jenkinson,James F. Marchman III. Aircraft Design Projects for engineering
students. 2003. Butterworth-Heinemann Publication
REFERENCES (contd)
Research papers -
[1] Luís Miguel Almodôvar Parada, “Conceptual and Preliminary Design of a Long Endurance Electric UAV”,
November 2016
[2] Yu-Chi Wang , Donglong Sheu, Chiting Tsai, Hung-Jing Huang, and Ya-Hsien Lai, “Performance Analysis and Flight
Testing for Low Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles”, Journal of Aeronautics, Astronautics and
Aviation, Series A, Vol.45, No.1 pp.037 - 044 (March 2013) 37 DOI: 10.6125/12-1218-72
[3] Philipp Oettershagen, Amir Melzer, Thomas Mantel, Konrad Rudin, Thomas Stastny, Bartosz Wawrzacz, Timo
Hinzmann, Stefan Leutenegger, Kostas Alexis†and Roland Siegwart, “Design of small hand-launched solar-powered
UAVs:From concept study to a multi-day world endurance record flight”, 2015 ETH-Zurich
[4] Vijay Shankar Dwivedi, Jay Patrikar ,Amulya Addamane,A.K. Ghosh, “MARAAL: A Low Altitude Long Endurance
Solar powered UAV For Surveillance and Mapping Applications”, 2018 IEEE, DOI: 10.1109/MMAR.2018.8485805
[5] A. Noth and R. Siegwart, Design of Solar Powered Airplanes for Continuous Flight (Autonomous System Lab, ETH
Zurich, December 2006).
[6] Ernst Schoeberl, “From Sunrise to Solar-Impulse 34 Years of Solar Powered Flight”, August 2008. TECHNICAL
SOARING - VOL. 32, NO. 4
THANK YOU