Empirical measurements of small unmanned aerial vehicle co-axial rotor systems
Empirical measurements of small unmanned aerial vehicle co-axial rotor systems
Small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAV) are beginning to dominate the area of intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) in forward operating battlefield scenarios. Of particular interest are vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) variants. Within this category co-axial rotor designs have been adopted due to their inherent advantages of size and power to weight ratio. The inter-rotor spacing attribute of a co-axial rotor system appears to offer insight into the optimum design characteristic. The H/D ratio has been cited as a significant factor in many research papers, but to date has lacked an empirical value or an optimal dimensionless condition. In this paper the H/D ratio of a SUAV has been explored thoroughly, reviewing the performance of these systems at incremental stages, the findings from this study have shown that a range of H/D ratios in the region of (0.41-0.65) is advantageous in the performance of SUAV systems. This finding lends itself to the theory of inter-rotor spacing as a non-dimensionally similar figure, which cannot be applied across a spectrum of systems; this could be attributed to the viscous losses of flight at low Reynolds Numbers (< 50,000)
1-18
Prior, Stephen D.
9c753e49-092a-4dc5-b4cd-6d5ff77e9ced
Bell, Jonathon
42f79ea2-baba-4263-96a7-7b1acdb79162
2011
Prior, Stephen D.
9c753e49-092a-4dc5-b4cd-6d5ff77e9ced
Bell, Jonathon
42f79ea2-baba-4263-96a7-7b1acdb79162
Prior, Stephen D. and Bell, Jonathon
(2011)
Empirical measurements of small unmanned aerial vehicle co-axial rotor systems.
Journal of Science and Innovation, 1 (1), .
Abstract
Small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAV) are beginning to dominate the area of intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) in forward operating battlefield scenarios. Of particular interest are vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) variants. Within this category co-axial rotor designs have been adopted due to their inherent advantages of size and power to weight ratio. The inter-rotor spacing attribute of a co-axial rotor system appears to offer insight into the optimum design characteristic. The H/D ratio has been cited as a significant factor in many research papers, but to date has lacked an empirical value or an optimal dimensionless condition. In this paper the H/D ratio of a SUAV has been explored thoroughly, reviewing the performance of these systems at incremental stages, the findings from this study have shown that a range of H/D ratios in the region of (0.41-0.65) is advantageous in the performance of SUAV systems. This finding lends itself to the theory of inter-rotor spacing as a non-dimensionally similar figure, which cannot be applied across a spectrum of systems; this could be attributed to the viscous losses of flight at low Reynolds Numbers (< 50,000)
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paper-Prior-02_-_Update_-_25_January_2011.pdf
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Published date: 2011
Organisations:
Aeronautics, Astronautics & Comp. Eng
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 342834
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/342834
ISSN: 2078-5453
PURE UUID: c7b0fd18-7944-405d-bffa-e6297be1926f
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Date deposited: 14 Sep 2012 13:16
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:45
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Author:
Jonathon Bell
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