Research on dropping test and numerical simulation for unmanned aerial vehicle

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) may lose control and collide with other objects in the air, thus causing serious flight safety accidents. In this paper, the impact load and damage mechanism of 4.78 kg quad rotor UAV were studied. First, the accurate numerical model of UAV was established in the explicit dynamic analysis software LS-DYNA. Then the overall drop simulation and test of UAV with two different heights were carried out. Finally, the results were compared and analyzed. The high coincidence of experimental results and simulation results showed that the calculation method and simulation model are reasonable. On this basis, the impact load and damage of UAV in different speeds, heading angles and pitch angles were simulated and analyzed. The results revealed that the heading angle, pitch angle and velocity of UAV during collision have a significant effect on the impact load between UAV and the impacted object. It also affected the damage degree of UAV itself. In the collision, the arm of the UAV tended to break at the position joined to the fuselage. The battery hanging on the fuselage was also liable to separate from the fuselage. The research results of this paper have a certain guiding significance for the formulation of UAV safe flight airworthiness regulations.