Abstract
Recently, the cruising duration is a vital parameter of fuel-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and it is directly determined by the power characteristics of the aircraft engine in the UAV. In this study, to prolong the flight duration and enhance the power and efficiency of a UAV, an aircraft engine is analyzed based on the fuel injection control system and output power characteristics. First, the mathematical model of a fuel-controlled engine is constructed. In addition, the experimental stations of the aircraft engine are set up to verify the mathematical model. Furthermore, the effects of key parameters on the engine power characteristics are examined. By the experimental and simulation studies validity of the mathematical model is effectively verified which indicates that the increased rotating speed decreases the power efficiency of the aircraft engine, and reducing the fuel injection pulse width from 5 ms to 3.5 ms increases the power efficiency by 10%. Moreover, increasing the advance angle of ignition from 10° to 40° improves the power efficiency by 5%. In addition, when the fuel injection delay width increases from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm at an engine speed between 3500 rpm and 4000 rpm, the power efficiency is improved by 6%. Finally, when the engine speed is higher than 4000 rpm, increasing the propeller rotor diameter from 650 mm to 800 mm enhances the power efficiency of the aircraft engine by approximately 5%. This research can be considered as the fuel injection system optimization and cruising duration improvement of a fuel-powered UAV.
Highlights
Fuel-powered unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) have been widely applied in agriculture, plant protection, transportation, and field surveillance due to their simple structure, easy control, steady running, and landform independence [1]–[5]
As UAVs can only carry a limited amount of fuel, the cruising duration of a fuel-powered UAV is directly affected by the fuel consumption rate of the aircraft engine
According to the analysis results, the working characteristics of the fuel-controlled aircraft engine are mainly affected by the throttle opening degree (α), fuel injection pulse width (Iw), advance angle of ignition (θ ), fuel injection delay width (Dw), and rotor diameter of the UAV propeller (Dpro)
Summary
Fuel-powered unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) have been widely applied in agriculture, plant protection, transportation, and field surveillance due to their simple structure, easy control, steady running, and landform independence [1]–[5]. Y. Wang et al.: Study of Fuel-Controlled Aircraft Engine for Fuel-Powered UAV force from experiments and calculations. Hooper et al [14] have presented the methods of cold starting a UAV engine based on the experimental experience His team [15] has independently conducted aircraft engine modelling to improve the power efficiency. Some recent works on fuel-powered engines use an intake pressure sensor, intake flow sensor, and air–fuel ratio analyzer [21], [22] These devices will increase the load of a UAV. Energy consumption efficiency ηi is related with key parameters of engine speed n, air pressure of manifold Pm, ignition angle θ , and air/fuel ratio λ.
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