Investigation of the transient aerodynamic behavior of a UAV with folding wings in a generic airdrop

Abstract

In this study, the influence of wing unfolding on the aerodynamics and flight mechanics of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with initially folded wings is numerically investigated. First, the wing unfolding process itself and its effect on the aerodynamics is analyzed, and second, a generic airdrop scenario for such UAVs is investigated. In this context, the RANS flow solver DRL-Tau Code is coupled with a flight mechanic tool with 6 degrees of freedom. The relative motion of the wings is realized with the chimera technique. It is shown that the unfolding process strongly influences the aerodynamics of a UAV due to the time dependent wind sweep. However, there were no unsteady flow phenomena as a result of the relative motion of the wings. With regard to the airdrop, it is found that the flight path of the RC is influenced to a large extent by the wing unfolding. Here, the direction of the wing unfold motion, from back to front or from front to back, and the final sweep (forward/backward) also plays a crucial role