Wind-tunnel and CFD investigations of UAV landing gears and turrets – Improvements in empirical drag estimation

  • This paper analyzes the drag characteristics of several landing gear and turret configurations that are representative of unmanned aircraft tricycle landing gears and sensor turrets. A variety of these components were constructed via 3D-printing and analyzed in a wind-tunnel measurement campaign. Both turrets and landing gears were attached to a modular fuselage that supported both isolated components and multiple components at a time. Selected cases were numerically investigated with a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes approach that showed good accuracy when compared to wind-tunnel data. The drag of main gear struts could be significantly reduced via streamlining their cross-sectional shape and keeping load carrying capabilities similar. The attachment of wheels introduced interference effects that increased strut drag moderately but significantly increased wheel drag compared to isolated cases. Very similar behavior was identified for front landing gears. The drag of an electro-optical and infrared sensor turret was found to be much higher than compared to available data of a clean hemisphere-cylinder combination. This turret drag was merely influenced by geometrical features like sensor surfaces and the rotational mechanism. The new data of this study is used to develop simple drag estimation recommendations for main and front landing gear struts and wheels as well as sensor turrets. These recommendations take geometrical considerations and interference effects into account.

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Metadaten
Author:Falk GöttenORCiD, Marc Havermann, Carsten BraunORCiD, Matthew Marino, Cees Bil
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2020.106306
ISSN:1270-9638
Parent Title (English):Aerospace Science and Technology
Publisher:Elsevier
Place of publication:Amsterdam
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2020
Date of the Publication (Server):2020/10/28
Volume:107
Issue:Art. 106306
Link:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2020.106306
Zugriffsart:campus
Institutes:FH Aachen / Fachbereich Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik
collections:Verlag / Elsevier