• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.450-458
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• 2017

This paper presents dynamic modelling and simulation study on attitude/altitude control of an insect-mimicking flapping micro aerial vehicle during hovering. Mathematical modelling consists of three parts: simplified flapping kinematics, flapping-wing aerodynamics, and six degree of freedom dynamics. Attitude stabilization is accomplished through linear quadratic regulator based on the linearized model of the time-varying nonlinear system, and altitude control is designed in the outer loop using PID control. The performance of the proposed controller is verified through numerical simulation where attitude stabilization and altitude control is done for hovering. In addition, it is confirmed that the attitude channel by periodic control is marginally stable against periodic pitching moment caused by flapping.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2548-2553
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• 2008

Prediction of the rotor blade performance is important for determining design factors such as weight and size in development of a small-scale helicopter. Generally, prediction of helicopter performance means the estimation of the power required for a given flight condition. However, due to lack of test data and analyzed results for small-scale rotor blade operated at low Reynolds numbers ($Re{\approx}10^5$), this is not an easy task. As an initial research, this work performs a modeling of a single rotor configuration with FLIGHTLAB and a experimental research with rotor test bed. In this process, we performed small-scale isolated single rotor by experimental and numerical method and achieved good agreement of the hover performance on the test data and simulation results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.10
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• pp.677-690
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• 2022

By using an actuator disk method based flow solver, aerodynamic analysis is carried out for a dual ducted fan aircraft, which is one of the VTOL compound aircrafts, and its associated ground effect is analyzed. The characteristics and accuracy of the solver for ground effect analysis is evaluated through a comparison with the results obtained from the sliding mesh technique. The aerodynamic performance and flow field characteristics with respect to the distance from the ground are analyzed. As the ground distance decreases, the fan thrust increases, but the deterioration of total normal force and hovering flight efficiency is identified owing to the decrease in the vertical force of the duct, fuselage, and wing. By examining the flow field in the bottom of the fuselage, the ground vortices and fountain flow generated by the interaction of the fan wake and ground are identified, and their influence on the aerodynamic performance is analyzed. The strength and characteristics of outwash with respect to the ground distance and azimuth direction are analyzed through comparison/examination of velocity profile. Influence of the ground effect with respect to collective pitch angle is also identified.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.25-28
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• 2008

An aerodynamic calculation in hover of KUH main rotor blade is performed using a three-dimensional unstructured hybrid mesh viscous flow solver. The flow solver utilizes a vertex-centered finite-volume scheme that is based on the Roe's flux-difference splitting with an implicit Jacobi/Gauss-Seidel time integration. The eddy viscosity are estimated by the Spalart-Allmaras one-equation turbulence model. A solution-adaptive mesh refinement technique is used for efficient capturing of the tip vortex. Calculations are performed at several operating conditions with varying collective pitch setting for KUH main rotor blade in hover. Good agreements are obtained between the present and other results using HOST and CAMRAD II in overall rotor performance. It is demonstrated that the present vertex-centered flow solver is an efficient and accurate tool for the assessment of rotor performance in hover.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.36-43
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• 2017

Blade design optimization of QTP-UAV prop-rotor was conducted using ModelCenter(R). Performance efficiency of the blade in hover and forward flight were adopted as the multi-objective function. Required power and pitch link force applied to constraint in each flight mode and limited lower than the value of the baseline blade. Design variables of root chord length of the blade, taper ratio, twist slope, twist angle at 0.5R of the blade, anhedral angle, parabolic coefficient of a tip shape and location of airfoil were used to generate the blade planform. CAMRAD-II, the comprehensive analysis program of rotorcraft, was used for performance analysis of prop-rotor blade in design process. Performance of the optimized blade improved 1.6% of figure of merit in hover and 13.6% of propulsive efficiency in forward flight. Pitch link force also reduced approximately 30% less than that of the baseline blade.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2022

Wind tunnel test for a small scale electric ducted fan with a 104mm diameter was conducted to analyze the aerodynamic characteristics when it was used as a propulsion system of tilt-propeller UAV. Experimental conditions were derived from flight conditions of a sub-scaled OPPAV. Forces and moments of the ducted fan model were measured by a 6-axis balance and 3-dimensional wake vectors which could induce an aerodynamic influence in the vehicle were measured by 5-hole probes. Thrust and torque on hover and cruise conditions were measured and analyzed to drive out the operating conditions when it was applied in the sub-scaled OPPAV. On transition conditions, thrust keep its value with tilt angle variation below 40° and increase after that. But, sideforce increase constantly until 75°. The maximum axial velocity in the wake on hover and cruise conditions was around 60m/s and tangential velocity was around 12m/s. The position of the maximum axial velocity and vortex center move off the fan rotation center line as the tilt angle increases.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.26-34
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• 2018

Structural static test and the performance test were conducted to determine whether the propeller developed for a multi-copter with the take-off weight of 25 kg satisfies the design requirement. The result of the structural test revealed that the propeller had a safety margin of 3 or more as the ultimate load and requirement load did not cause the specimen breakage. In the performance test, the propeller generated the hover thrust and maximum thrust of design requirement, and hover efficiency in the operating thrust range was greater than 0.73. Maximum hover efficiency increased by more than 3% compared to the reference propeller and electric power consumption decreased by more than 4% in the operating range. The propeller was found to be successfully developed based on the satisfaction rate of the structural strength requirement and the performance requirement.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.22-31
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• 2005

A design study was conducted for a new concept aircraft(Canard Rotor/Wing: CRW) that has the capability of dual mode flight, a rotorcraft and a fixed wing mode. The CRW can show a vertical take off/landing and a high speed/efficiency cruise performance simultaneously. It is not surprising to develop a new sizing code for this class of aircraft because conventional sizing codes developed solely for either the rotary wing or the fixed wing aircraft are not adequate to design a dual mode aircraft operated both by the rotary wing through tip jet effux and the fixed wing lift. Thus, a new design code was developed based on the conventional sizing code by adding some features including rotor performance, duct flow, and engine flow analysis, hence could eventually predict the performance of reaction driven rotor, the flight performance and the flight characteristics. The various design parameters were investigated to find their influences on the flight performance then, a small UAV(Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle) of 1500 lbs class was optimally designed to have minimum weight using the developed sizing code.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.53-59
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• 2022

In this study, an experimental device was fabricated to evaluate the hovering flight performance of a single rotor on a hexacopter used for river surveillance, and a thrust performance test was conducted. In addition, the 3D profile of the propeller was extracted by 3D scanning and CFD analysis was performed using ANSYS CFD 14.5 based on the extracted 3D model of the propeller. The aerodynamic characteristics were compared with the results of the performance tests and CFD analysis, and the vortex structure corresponding to each motor rotational speed in revolutions per minute (rpm) was identified. In the future, we plan to provide valuable data for multicopter propeller design and performance verification.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.12-21
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• 2010

This paper focuses on the hover performance experiment of a small-scale single rotor in partial ground conditions. In this study, small-scale rotor blade rotating device and floor panel are used to include partial ground effect. Thrust and torque were measured with varying collective pitch angles at fixed rotor rotating speed. The overlap distance between rotor and ground is d, the rotor diameter is D. It was shown that the ground effects have little effect on the rotor performance until d/D is 0.25. Four blade rotor has more increased thrust and more reduced power than those of two blade rotor because of stronger ground effect. In addition, it was also found that the thrust increases as a collective pitch angle become smaller. Based on these experiment results, we deduced new empirical equation considered blade number and partial ground effect.