CFD ANALYSIS USING STAR CCM + SOFTWARE FOR DRONES

Category: Technology

During the last decade there has been a huge development in the designing and evolving technologies based on their integration with unmanned aerial systems/drones. These integrated drone systems cover a large range of applications that can greatly help humanity in every aspect. The effect of ground proximity is also included in an additional basis. For instance, they can be used for surveillance purposes for predicting physical disasters, they can provide services for precision agriculture and cartography, aid in humanitarian missions and greatly assist rescue missions. In general, these systems can be used for monitoring and accessing by air places difficult to be reached by other means. The mission of the drone is to successfully send and drop first aid packages to targets/coordinates arranged in an automated course which must be followed by the drone, covering a flight distance of 9 to 10 km. After completing its mission, the drone must return to the starting point without any human interference. The overall weight of the drone (including the payload) should not exceed 6.9 kg and it must be capable of tracking and recording specific waypoints during its flight with the use of a GPS device. The study is focused on the aerodynamic performance characteristics assessment of an initially selected propeller for the quad copter with the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and on the performance assessment of three turbulence models that follow different turbulence modelling methodologies. In the literature there are various papers that use CFD for validating propeller aerodynamic characteristics for unmanned aerial vehicles, manned airplanes and wind turbines. In case of quad copters, the relative position between blades and frame proves as a key factor in rates of thrust change that results in the minimization of superposition of the blade over the body in the MRF case, the MRF turns this model into a very interesting option while lowering the computational cost consequently along with influence in blade to blade position. Fluidmech helps customer fine tune the Propeller blade so that more weight can be lifted. Also the drag of the drone is less, and the drone fly successfully even during the heavy wind blow. Fluidmech uses the robust software STAR CCM+ from SIEMENS. This aids the user carryout the design optimization, quick turnaround time, with efficient design. STARCCMPLUS is the best known software in the industry because it is user friendly and it is easy to learn the robust meshing technology.