UAV Safety Research Articles

Estimation of In-Flight Icing Characteristics of UAVs During Different Meteorological Conditions

The in-flight structural icing phenomenon is very important for the UAV's because it causes some serious problems such as reduced lift and increased drag forces, significantly decreased angle of attack, increased weight, sturctural imbalances and improper radio communications. In order to increase flight safety of UAV's we develop a meteorological support for the UAV pilots, mission controllers and decision makers, too. The mentioned support based on 3D observational data, statistical and numerical methods, as well. In our paper we show the in-flight structural icing estimation method as a part of this support system based on both a simple 2D ice accretion model and WRF numerical weather predictions. We point out the role of the air temperature, LWC and airfoil geometry in the icing process on the wings of UAVs. With the help of our system we made an estimation of geometry and amount of ice accretion on the wing of a shor-range and a HALE UAVs during a hypothetical flight under a typical icy weather situation with St clouds over the carpathian-basin (a case study). FInally we point out that our icing estimation system can easily be adapted for supporting the missions of other types of UAVs.