CFD analysis of a high altitude long endurance UAV WING

Abstract

The aerodynamic performance of an airfoil provides specific information on wing design of HALE UAV and is considered as eminent for enhancing its flight conditions. In this paper, numerical investigation of a wing is conducted to predict its preliminary aerodynamic quality. A concise comparison of lift and drag curve obtained from numerical analysis conducted in two different programs, will be the scope of this research. Preliminary aerodynamic performance study including 12 different wings were previously performed in Fortran program GLAUERT-trapezoidal wing. From those 12 wings, one wing was selected which has the best aerodynamic performance at an operational altitude of 15000 m. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software package, ANSYS Fluent is used for numerical analysis of the selected wing. Two different turbulence models were simulated in this work. Lift and drag coefficients were calculated respectively by varying angle of attacks. Hence, the resulted lift and drag curve generated in GLAUERT were compared with those obtained from ANSYS FLUENT. Additionally, other parameters like flow separation, pressure and velocity contours obtained by different turbulent models were also discussed.