journal article·2020-12-01Open access

Horizontal Wind Effect on the Aerodynamic Performance of Coaxial Tri-Rotor MAV

Yao Lei, Yiqiang Ye, Zhiyong Chen

Applied Sciences· Volume 10· Issue 23

Abstract

The coaxial Tri-rotor micro air vehicle (MAV) is composed of three coaxial rotors where the aerodynamic characteristics of is complicated in flight especially when the wind effect is introduced. In this paper, the hovering performance of a full-scale coaxial Tri-rotor MAV is analyzed with both the simulations and wind tunnel experiments. Firstly, the wind effect on the aerodynamic performance of coaxial Tri-rotor MAV is established with different rotor speed (1500–2300 rpm) and horizontal wind (0–4 m/s). Secondly, the thrust and power consumption of coaxial Tri-rotor (L/D = 1.6) were obtained with low-speed wind tunnel experiments. Furthermore, the streamline distribution, pressure distribution, velocity contour and vortex distribution with different horizontal wind conditions are obtained by numerical simulations. Finally, combining the experiment results and simulation results, it is noted that the horizontal wind may accelerate the aerodynamic coupling, which resulting in the greater thrust variation up to 9% of the coaxial Tri-rotor MAV at a lower rotor speed. Moreover, the aerodynamic performance is decreased with more power consumption at higher rotor speed where the wind and the downwash flow are interacted with each other. Compared with no wind flow, the shape of the downwash flow and the deformation of the vortex affect the power loading and figure of metric accordingly.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows · Plasma and Flow Control in Aerodynamics · Biomimetic flight and propulsion mechanisms

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China

Hydrodynamic and electrohydraulic Intelligent Control Key Laboratory of Fujian University, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Fuzhou University Jinjiang Science and Education Park · Fujian Provincial Industrial Robot Basic Components Technology Research and Development Center

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