Computer aided modeling and finite element analysis of 3-D printed drone

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles which are also known as drones are using tremendously especially due to their multiple applications in remote areas. The main difficulty in the application of drones is a structural failure because of various loads. 3D Printing technology is concerned with the continuous addition of thin layers in microns to create a three-dimensional object. An attempt is made to interpret the concept of Rapid Prototyping to reduce professional working time and to improve the effectiveness of the development of new solutions and models. In the current study, Computer-Aided Modeling and static structural analysis of the quadcopter drone frame are carried out with the aid of the Autodesk Fusion 360 software tool. The CAD model is further sliced by a CURA slicer, where the model undergoes orientation and scaling with the number of layers required to build an object. Accucraft i250+ 3-D printing machine assimilating the principle of fused deposition modeling (FDM) method is used for swift modeling to physical structure realization thereby generating a physical prototype of the frame. The raw material chosen for the study is Polylactic acid (PLA). In finite element analysis, the load acting on the frame was considered to be 25 N by considering the weight of the essential components on the frame. The values of maximum stress and maximum displacement were found to be 4.924 MPa and 1.454 mm respectively. The modeled drone found satisfactory to work under the prescribed load.