Abstract
Unlike traditional helicopters, ground effect has great influences on the performance of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) ducted fan unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during take-off and landing. A testing rig including a scaling ducted fan system and an imitation floor is designed and manufactured to investigate the influence of ground distance on the thrust and required power of the ducted fan system. The testing results show that the thrust is decreased and the driving power is increased because of the ground effect, and the loss of thrust and the increase of power become larger when the ground distance decreases. Finally, an acceptable distance is provided according to the testing results, and the ground effect should be specially considered during the design of ducted fan VTOV UAVs.
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