Conceptual and preliminary design approach of a high altitude, long endurance solar-powered UAV

Alsahlani, A; Rahulan, T

Abstract

In this paper, a description of newly developed conceptual and preliminary design approaches is introduced, to design a high altitude long endurance solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle. The conceptual design approach is based on representing the mass and the power requirement of each aircraft element as a fraction, in order to produce the total mass equation. The fractions have been gathered statistically from available data of existing aircraft of the same type. The mass equation will be solved for the expected range of the aspect ratio and span of the wing to generate a possible design space. The optimal design is then concluded from the design space as the minimum weight. This approach has been validated using existing data of related aircraft. In the preliminary design tool, the aircraft shape and the wing geometry are designed using the main characteristics of aircraft which were obtained from a previous design stage. An appropriate twist and sweep of the wing are then found using an optimisation tool which contains the aerodynamic and the structure models. The outcome at this stage must be a flyable aircraft geometry capable of meeting the mission requirements. Moreover, a case study of designing a solar powered aircraft is introduced using the developed design approaches.

Citation

Alsahlani, A., & Rahulan, T. (2017, March). Conceptual and preliminary design approach of a high altitude, long endurance solar-powered UAV. Presented at CSE 2017 Annual PGR Symposium (CSE-PGSym 2017), Salford University, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: CSE 2017 Annual PGR Symposium (CSE-PGSym 2017)
• Conference Location: Salford University, UK
• Start Date: Mar 17, 2017
• Deposit Date: Aug 8, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 8, 2017
• Publisher URL: http://www.salford.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/1176907/Ahmad-Alsahlani-Conceptual-and-Preliminary-Design-Approach-of-A-High-Altitude-Long-Endurance-Solar-Powered-UAV.pdf
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference