Aerodynamic Design, Analysis and Validation of a Small Blended-Wing-Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Kelei Wang, Zhou Zhou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper describes the aerodynamic design and assessment of a blended-wing–body (BWB) configuration under the distributed electric propulsion (DEP) installation constraints. The aerodynamic design rationale and process is described, as well as how the DEP system is considered and simplified in the optimization design process. Both the BWB configuration and the DEP induced effects are numerically simulated and analyzed using the Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) flow solvers. To further demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of the design approach, the wind tunnel tests of a scaled model of the designed BWB configuration are carried out, and both the aerodynamic characteristics and the BWB surface flow are measured and analyzed. The results indicate the reliability and feasibility of the optimization design method introduced in this paper.

Original languageEnglish
Article number36
JournalAerospace
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2022

Keywords

  • Aerodynamic characteristics
  • Blended-wing–body configuration
  • Distributed electric propulsion
  • Optimization design
  • Wind tunnel test

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