Aerodynamic Modelling of Unmanned Aerial System through Nonlinear Vortex Lattice Method, Computational Fluid Dynamics and Experimental Validation - Application to the UAS-S45 Bàlaam: Part 1.

Abstract

This paper describes a methodology to predict the aerodynamic behaviour of an Unmanned Aerial System. Aircraft design and flight dynamics modelling are mainly concerned with aerodynamics, and thus its estimation requires a high level of accuracy. The work presented here shows a new non-linear formulation of the classical Vortex Lattice Method and a comparison between this methodology and an experimental analysis. The new non-linear Vortex Lattice Method was performed by calculating the viscous forces from the strip theory, and the forces generated by the vortex rings from the vortex lifting law. The experimental analysis was performed on a reduced scale wing in a low speed wind tunnel. The obtained results were also compared to those obtained from semi-empirical methods programmed using DATCOM and our Fderivatives new in-house codes. The results have indicated the accuracy of the new formulation and showed that an aerodynamic model obtained with the aerodynamic coefficients predicted with this method could be useful for flight dynamics estimation.