Affiliations: [a] Laboratory of Aerodynamics, Universidad Nacional Experimental del Táchira, San Cristóbal, Venezuela | [b] Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universidad de Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador | [c] Department of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Luis Velazquez-Araque, Laboratory of Aerodynamics, Universidad Nacional Experimental del Táchira, San Cristóbal 5001, Venezuela. E-mail:luisenrique.velazquez@gmail
Abstract: According to the evolution of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), several
investments have been increasing every year, especially in the field of
aerodynamic characteristics. This paper deals with the prediction of
pressure and velocity fields on a UAV with internal propulsion system using
computational fluid dynamics. The main objective is to evaluate the effect
of the air flow past the aircraft and how this affects the aerodynamic
performance by means of obtaining lift and drag forces. The airfoil of this
aircraft is the 2415-3S, which was developed in previous research [1]. Since
the computational domain is three-dimensional and complex, a hybrid mesh was
developed and validated with a convergence study. Both the computational
domain and the numerical solution were developed with commercial CAD and CFD
software respectively. Air, incompressible and steady was simulated with a
Reynolds number of 2.74 × 105. The selected turbulence model was
Spalart-Allmaras which has been designed specifically for aerospace
applications involving wall-bounded flows. Lift, drag and moment
coefficients as well as pressure and velocity contours were obtained at
different angles of attack. Experimental results will be obtained in future
work to be compared to numerical ones and achieve the validation.