CBL - Campus del Baix Llobregat

Projecte llegit

Títol: Wing optimization of a UAV design using FEA fluid dynamics.

Director/a: MELLIBOVSKY ELSTEIN, FERNANDO PABLO

Departament: FIS

Títol: Wing optimization of a UAV design using FEA fluid dynamics.

Data inici oferta: 23-07-2020 Data finalització oferta: 23-03-2021

Estudis d'assignació del projecte:

MU DRONS

Tipus: Individual

Lloc de realització: Fora UPC

Supervisor/a extern: Sergi Tres Martínez
Institució/Empresa: Hemav Foundation
Titulació del Director/a: BSc Air Navigation Engineering

Paraules clau:
Drone, UAV, CFD, Mapping, Manufacturing, CAD, Wing Design, Locust, Hot Wire Foam Cutter, Composite Material

Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
Currently the company uses a Flying wing drone system that is launched using a bungee elastic rope. The rope is extended to 17 meters and gives the UAV a velocity of 60 km/h. When the drone system completes its mission, a large parachute is deployed to bring the drone system back on ground. There are obvious advantages to the parachute system but one of the biggest challenges of using the parachute is that the wind can make the parachute drift away from the intended landing site of the pilot. More over since the drone is flow in medium to dense regions of plantation and trees, there is a high chance that the parachute is caught up high in the trees and plants. Fetching the drone system along with the parachute is a daunting task which consumes time. The project aims at proposing and implementing a range of solutions to reduce the landing speed of an existing flying wing drone system so that the landing can be made in a more controlled fashion. Advance use of aerodynamic knowledge in particular low speed aerodynamics is expected to be used along with in-dept knowledge of CAD design, CFD simulation and wing design. The company expects the designs to not only be validated with hand calculation and simulations but also its expected to do physical testing using a wind tunnel. The project also aims in utilizing the Hot wire cutting machine in the HEMAV lab to manufacture wings in the future. Tools: • Ansys (Fluent + CFX + Mechanical) • Catia v5 • Mission Planner (Drone) • Solidworks 2019.

Overview (resum en anglès):
The company HEMAV Foundation is using an HP2 blended wing body (BWB) drone system to carry its payload which consists of onboard computers, a hi-resolution camera and other highly sensitive and expensive sensors. The primary objective of this drone system is to detect Locust in the African desert and use the data obtained by the drone system to fight locusts and prevent agricultural fields from damage. Currently, the HP2 drone system is brought to the ground using a parachute which is deployed in the air roughly 150 meters from the ground. This method of landing introduces many risks as when the parachute is deployed, it is at the mercy of the wind where ever the draft takes it. As the drone is used in agricultural fields the drone system is often found hanging in the trees and sometimes lands in a very inaccessible area. To improve the landing capabilities of the UAV, it is proposed to make changes to the design of the wing. To make the changes, we need to understand how the current wing is performing. To start this process, we shall obtain an accurate CAD model of the current UAV configuration and later analyse it for its performance in the air. In this master thesis, we will obtain a 3D scan of the drone system and reverse engineer it in a 3D parametric CAD system. A detailed description of the 3D modelling process is described. The coordinates of the wing area have been obtained at the root and the tip of the aerofoil. The 3D model is imported into a Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) software and a detailed process of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is established. Meshing, boundary conditions, inlet velocity and many other parameters are setup. Mesh independence studies are performed at a 4 deg AoA to obtain a reasonable level of accuracy while implementing a standard wall function with a K-epsilon turbulence model. Several parameters are studies which include cl, cd, cl/cd, skin friction, wall shear, pressure distribution and velocity profiles. Stall angle has been deduced from this study as well. In the future, more advanced 3D modelling techniques have been suggested to improve the accuracy of the 3D model. Furthermore, stability analysis has also been suggested which can be continued in the future.