Wind Tunnel Tests of UiTM Blended Wing Body - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (BWB-UAV) Prototype / Wirachman Wisnoe ...[et al.]

In 2014 Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia has been granted a research project under Prototype Research Grant Scheme from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia to build a prototype of Blended Wing Body - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for aerial surveillance. In this paper the aerodynamic characteristics of the prototype in the longitudinal direction are presented in terms of lift coefficient, drag coefficient, and pitching moment coefficient obtained from wind tunnel tests. The tests are conducted on a ¼ scaled half model aircraft placed in UiTM Low Speed Tunnel at wind speed of 20 m/s, 25 m/s, 30 m/s, 35 m/s and 40 m/s representing Reynolds number in the order of 105. For each wind speed, the angle of attack is varied from -10º to 64º to observe the full capability of the aircraft. Visualisation using thread tufts is also executed to see the flow pattern on the surface of the aircraft at certain angles. The results show that the maximum lift coefficient is around 0.65 at 28º angle of attack, the minimum drag coefficient is below 0.03 at zero angle of attack, and the maximum lift-to-drag ratio is about 20 at 3º angle of attack. The pitching moment curve indicates a static stability with negative slope between -7º to 10º angle of attack. Visualisation shows the flow separation progress on the surface of canard, wing and fuselage

Aerodynamic Analysis of Blended Wing Body - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (BWB-UAV) Equipped with Horizontal Stabilizers

This paper presents an aerodynamic characteristic study in longitudinal direction of UiTM Blended Wing Body-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Prototype (BWB-UAV Prototype) equipped with horizontal stabilizers. Flight tests have been conducted and as the result, BWB experienced overturning condition at certain angle of attack. Horizontal stabilizer was added at different location and size to overcome the issue during the flight test. Therefore, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is performed at different configuration of horizontal stabilizer using Spalart - Allmaras as a turbulence model. CFD simulation of the aircraft is conducted at Mach number 0.06 or v = 20 m/s at various angle of attack, α. The data of lift coefficient (CL), drag coefficient (CD), and pitching moment coefficient (CM) is obtained from the simulations. The data is represented in curves against angle of attack to measure the performance of BWB prototype with horizontal stabilizer. From the simulation, configuration with far distance and large horizontal stabilizer gives steeper negative pitching moment slope indicating better static stability of the aircraft

Aerodynamic Analysis of Blended Wing Body - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (BWB-UAV) Equipped with Horizontal Stabilizers

This paper presents an aerodynamic characteristic study in longitudinal direction of UiTM Blended Wing Body-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Prototype (BWB-UAV Prototype) equipped with horizontal stabilizers. Flight tests have been conducted and as the result, BWB experienced overturning condition at certain angle of attack. Horizontal stabilizer was added at different location and size to overcome the issue during the flight test. Therefore, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is performed at different configuration of horizontal stabilizer using Spalart - Allmaras as a turbulence model. CFD simulation of the aircraft is conducted at Mach number 0.06 or v = 20 m/s at various angle of attack, α. The data of lift coefficient (CL), drag coefficient (CD), and pitching moment coefficient (CM) is obtained from the simulations. The data is represented in curves against angle of attack to measure the performance of BWB prototype with horizontal stabilizer. From the simulation, configuration with far distance and large horizontal stabilizer gives steeper negative pitching moment slope indicating better static stability of the aircraft