Aerodynamic Design Consideration for Stability of a Lightweight Solar-Powered Aircraft

Safyanu Bashir Danjuma

Abstract

Aerodynamic design analysis was conducted for the stability of a lightweight solar aircraft weighing 3 kg and a wingspan of 3.2 m. Airfoil analysis was conducted on four selected airfoils. The following factors were considered: good aerodynamic characteristics, low Reynolds number, high lift, low drag, high lift-to-drag ratio, quiet moment coefficient, moderate thickness, and camber curvature. WE-3.55.93 airfoil was selected as best and used to design the wing, and NACA 0008 was used to develop the empennage. The fuselage was designed with two compartments 1.9 m long, and the second compartment is made of aluminium or carbon fibre to reduce weight. The first compartment was 0.95 m long and 0.4 m in diameter. The centre of gravity was determined for the importance of the various aircraft components to ensure aerodynamic stability and balance. The complete assembly was designed using XFLR5 v6 software.

10.22178/pos.81-10


Keywords


aerodynamic design; airfoil analysis; high lift coefficient; low drag coefficient; centre of gravity

Full Text:

PDF


References


Abbe, G., & Smith, H. (2016). Technological development trends in Solar‐powered Aircraft Systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 60, 770–783. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2016.01.053

Danjuma, S. B., Omar, Z., & Abdullahi, M. N. (2021). Design of Power Device Sizing and Integration for Solar-Powered Aircraft Application. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 18(3), 215–232.

Davey, P. (2009, June 8-12). Zephyr HALE UAS (High Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial System). Retrieved from https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA510880.pdf

Gao, X.-Z., Hou, Z.-X., Guo, Z., & Chen, X.-Q. (2015). Reviews of methods to extract and store energy for solar-powered aircraft. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 44, 96–108. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2014.11.025

Hargreaves, Z., Kim, B., Ou, A., Nguyen, Q., & Maharbiz, M. (2011, November 6). Berkeley Solar Drone. Retrieved from https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~qmn/lbl/resources/application/application-latex.pdf

Hartney, C. J. (2011). Design of Small Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Master’s thesis). San Jose State University.

Hutchinson, H. (2016, October 7). Solar Impulse Closes the Circle. Retrieved from https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/solar-impulse-closes-the-circle

Khurana, A., Nayak, A., Pacholi, A., & Shah, R. (2014). Design and Fabrications of Solar Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Piani: IIT Bombay and Birla Institute of Technology and Science

Montgomery, S., & Mourtos, N. (2013). Design of a 5 Kilogram Solar-Powered Unmanned Airplane for Perpetual Solar Endurance Flight. 49th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference. doi: 10.2514/6.2013-3875

Morton, S., D’Sa, R., & Papanikolopoulos, N. (2015). Solar powered UAV: Design and experiments. 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). doi: 10.1109/iros.2015.7353711

Najafi, Y. (2011). Design of a High Altitude Long Endurance Solar Powered UAV SPACOM (Solar Powered Aerial Communicator) (Master’s thesis). San Jose State University.

Noth, A. (2008). Design of Solar Powered Airplanes for Continuous Flight. Retrieved from https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/mavt/robotics-n-intelligent-systems/asl-dam/documents/phd_thesis/Andre_Noth_Design_of_Solar_Powered_Airplanes_for_Continuous_Flight.pdf

Noth, A., & Siegwart, R (2008). Design of Solar Powered Airplanes for Continuous Flight. Retrieved from https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/mavt/robotics-n-intelligent-systems/asl-dam/documents/projects/Design_Skysailor.pdf

Raymer, D. P. (2007). Simplified Aircraft Design for Home Builders. Los Angeles: Design Dimension Press.

Safyanu, B. D., Abdullah, M. N., & Omar, Z. (2019). Review of Power Device for Solar-Powered Aircraft Applications. Journal of Aerospace Technology and Management, 11. doi: 10.5028/jatm.v11.1077

Safyanu, B. D., Omar, Z., & Abdullahi, M. N. (2018). Review of Photovoltaic Cells for Solar-Powered Aircraft Applications. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7, 131–135.

Shiau, J.-K., Ma, D.-M., Chiu, C.-W., & Shie, J.-R. (2010). Optimal Sizing and Cruise Speed Determination for a Solar-Powered Airplane. Journal of Aircraft, 47(2), 622–629. doi: 10.2514/1.45908

Sri, K. R. B., Aneesh, P., Bhanu, K., & Natarajan, M. (2016). Design Analysis of Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Journal of Aerospace Technology and Management, 8(4), 397–407. doi: 10.5028/jatm.v8i4.666


Article Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Metrics powered by PLOS ALM

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Copyright (c) 2022 Safyanu Bashir Danjuma

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.