Experimental and computational analysis of a uav for superdicial volcano surveillance

Nowadays, unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) technology has been improved considerably due to their ideal characteristic to recognize areas of
difficult access, performing missions that could not be made with traditional manned aircraft. This work presents the experimental and computational analysis of a UAV for superficial volcano monitoring. The aerial vehicle, called URCUNINA-UAV aims to monitor the Galeras Volcano located in Colombia. The conceptual design of the aircraft is based on the design requirements established from a mission analysis. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were done using Ansys-CFX. Experimental analysis was carried out in both open and closed wind tunnels in order to study all the possible aerodynamic phenomena that could be presented in the UAV mission. A Laminar Separation Bubble (LSB) was observed on the upper surface of the wing, which modify the aircraft performance considerably. However, the bubble formation was avoided using several transition processes. On the other hand, results showed that the entire design process was consistent because the numerical and experimental results were greatly similar in the aerodynamic coefficients. This suggested that the URCUNINA-UAV is potentially able to perform the proposed mission.