Investigations on Aerodynamic Performance of Fixed Wing Micro Air Vehicle with Different Planforms

Abstract

Lots of large aircrafts have been developed with various designs for different purposes like commercial, combat and cargo. Presently, for small inaccessible regions, due to security and inspection, there is a need for small sized aircraft. With the development in technology, lots of research is being conducted for small sized unmanned aircrafts. So, under fixed wing type small sized aircrafts, various designs can be generated for the wing with better aerodynamic performance. In this present study, the aerodynamic characteristics of the micro air vehicle fixed wing with different planforms are investigated using Fluent Solver with standard k- turbulence model. The planforms taken up for study are Zimmerman, Inverse Zimmerman, Modified Trapezoid, Plaster 2. The airfoils chosen to design the wing are Selig-4083 and Epple-61. All the wing designs have same chord length, wingspan, and analysed with same air speed for different angle of attacks ranging from 0 to 40. Numerical data of two wings with Zimmerman and Inverse Zimmerman results are validated with the experimental values of CSIR - NAL. All the wing planforms results are compared with the Zimmerman and Inverse Zimmerman. Based on the study, Plaster2 and Modified Trapezoid gives the optimum value in terms of aerodynamic coefficients. But Inverse Zimmerman has the maximum aerodynamic efficiency among all planforms while Plaster2 has the maximum value of coefficient of lift.