CFD STUDY OF A MICRO AIR VEHICLE (MAV)
Abstract
Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) is new type of aircraft technology that is maturing day by day and have recently reached unprecedented levels of growth. MAV is small in size and provides enormous potential in many applications, both for military and civilian use. There are three types of MAV, namely rotary wing, flapping wing and fixed wing. Due to the small size, MAV faces difficulty to fly properly due to the atmospheric perturbations. This study aims to model a suitable fixed wing MAV using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to investigate the lift coefficient, drag coefficient and lift to drag ratio when MAV is used in pertubed flow conditions. When there is wind disturbance, the simulation results show that the lift and drag coefficient for several angle of attack changes. However, the lift to drag ratio seems unaffected. Results showed that MAV is best operated at 8° angle of attack as it provided the maximum lift to drag ratio for situations without and with the present of wind disturbances. The fluid dynamics behavior of flow around MAV are also discussed accordingly. Even though MAV is small in size, it is found that vortex or vorticity flow also exist in MAV, especially at high degree angle of attack.
Full Text:
PDFReferences
D.M. Atwater, “The Commercial Global Drone Market”, Emerging Opportunities for Social and Environmental Uses of UAVs, pp. 18, 2015.
R.C. Michelson, “Very Small Flying Machines”, Yearbook of Science and Technology, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 341-344, 2006.
L. Petricca, P. Ohlckers, and C. Grinde, “Micro- and Nano-Air Vehicles: State of the Art”, International Journal of Aerospace Engineering, pp. 1-17, 2011.
M. Hassanalian, and A. Abdelkefi, “Classifications, Applications and Design Challenges of Drones: A Review”, Progress in Aerospace Science, pp. 99–131, 2017.
A. Aboelezz, M. Hassanalian, A. Desoki, B. Elhadidi, and G. El-Bayoumi, “Design, Experimental Investigation and Nonlinear Flight Dynamics with Atmospheric Disturbances of a Fixed Wing Micro Air Vehicle”, Aerospace Science and Technology, vol. 97, 2020.
M. Hossain, F. Hasan, A. Seraz, and S. Rajib, “Development of Design and Manufacturing of a Fixed Wing Radio Controlled Micro Air Vehicle (MAV)”, MIST Journal: GALAXY (DHAKA), vol.3, 2011.
D. Hodgkinson, and R. Johnston, “Aviation Law and Drones”, Unmanned Aircraft and the Future of Aviation, Routledge, 2018
A. Tahir, J. Boling, M. Haghbayan, H.T. Toivonen, and J. Plosila, “Swarms of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - A Survey”, Journal of Industrial Information Integration, vol. 16, 2019.
D.F. Kurtulus, “Unsteady Aerodynamics of a Pitching NACA 0012 Airfoil at Low Reynolds Number”, International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles, vol. 11, 2019.
T.J. Mueller, and G.E. Torres, “Aerodynamics of Low Aspect Ratio Wings at Low Reynolds Numbers with Applications”, Micro Air Vehicle Design and Optimization, pp. 39-72, 2001.
A. Panta, A. Mohamed, M. Marino, S. Watkins, and A. Fisher, “Unconventional Control Solutions for Small Fixed Wing Unmanned Aircraft”, Progress in Aerospace Sciences, vol. 102, pp. 122-135, 2018.
B. Bataille, D. Poinsot, C. Thipyopas, and J.M. Moschetta, “Fixed-Wing Micro Air Vehicles with Hovering Capabilities”, Platform Innovations and System Integration for Unmanned Air, Land and Sea Vehicles (AVT-SCI Joint Symposium), vol. 38, pp. 1-16, 2007.
T.A. Ward, C.J. Fearday, S. Erfan, and S. Norhayati, “A Bibliometric Review of Progress in Micro Air Vehicle Research”, International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles, pp. 1-20, 2017.
G.F. Emilio, O. Alberto, B.P. Francisco, and P.C. Joan, “A Mosaicing Approach for Vessel Visual Inspection Using a Micro Aerial Vehicle”, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2015.
P. Bowles, T. Corke, and E. Matlis, “Stall Detection on a Leading-Edge Plasma Actuated Pitching Airfoil Utilizing Onboard Measurement”, 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including The New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition, 2009.
M.P. Patel, Z.H. Sowle, T.C. Corke, and C. He, “Autonomous Sensing and Control of Wing Stall Using a Smart Plasma Slat”, JAircr 2007, pp. 27-44, 2007.
X.Q. Zhang, and L. Tian, “Three-Dimensional Simulation of Micro Air Vehicles with Low Aspect Ratio Wings”, Key Engineering Materials, vol. 339, pp. 377-381, 2007.
P.J. Kunz, “Aerodynamics and Design for Ultra Low Reynolds Number Flight”, PhD thesis. Stanford: Stanford University, 2003.
M. Hassanalian, H. Khaki, and M. Khosrawi, “A New Method for Design of Fixed Wing Micro Air Vehicle”, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, vol. 229, pp. 837–850, 2014.
F. Hsiao, C. Lin, Y. Liu, D. Wang, C. Hsu, and C. Chiang, “Thickness Effect on Low-Aspect-Ratio Wing Aerodynamic Characteristics at a Low Reynolds Number”, Journal of Mechanics, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 223-228, 2008.
A. Mohamed, K. Massey, S. Watkins, and R. Clothier, “The Attitude Control of Fixed-wing MAVS in Turbulent Environments”, Progress in Aerospace Sciences, vol. 66, pp. 37-48, 2014.
S. Sankaranarayanan, A. Roshan, and C. Suraj, Technology Driven Programme for the Development of a Fixed wing micro Air Vehicle at NALDRIVEN, 2008.
C. Ramprasadh, and V. Devanandh, “A CFD Study on Leading Edge Wing Surface Modification of a Low Aspect Ratio Flying Wing to Improve Lift Performance”, International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles, vol. 7, no.3, pp. 361-373, 2015.
T. Flint, M. Jermy, T. New, and W. Ho, “Computational Study of a Pitching Bio-inspired Corrugated Airfoil”, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, vol. 65, pp. 328-341, 2017.
W. Shyy, Y. Lian. J. Tang, H. Liu, P. Trizila, B. Stanford, L. Bernal, C. Cesnik, and P. Ifju, “Computational Aerodynamics of Low Reynolds Number Plunging, Pitching and Flexible Wings for MAV Applications”, Acta Mech Sin, vol. 24, pp. 351–373, 2008.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2022/jmet.v14i1.6141
PRINT ISSN No.: 2180-1053
E ISSN No.: 2289-8123