Wind Tunnel Aerodynamic Study of a VTOL-UAV for Wide Range of Angles of Attack and Sideslip Angles

摘要

This article presents the design, manufacturing and wind tunnel tests conducted on a 1:4 scaled Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). A brief description of the VTOL model, identifying characteristic dimensions, along with the manufacturing process for the scale model and the measurement equipment is presented. Results of the wind tunnel experiments are conducted varying both angle of attack and sideslip angle for a wide rage of the angles, and several wind tunnel speeds, thus allowing to characterize the full flight envelope for all three flight phases of the VTOL-UAV: axial, transition and cruise flight phases. A description of the wind tunnel measuring setup and the methodology used is presented, along with the subsequent analysis and corrections considered for all the data obtained, presenting a discussion about the results and its comparison with numerical analysis obtained with CFD studies. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations are made with the main objective of establishing a basis for future tests.