• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.56-64
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• 2017

A high altitude long endurance aircraft which carries out missions of environmental research communication relay or ground surveillance, should have the capacity to cruise in the stratosphere at a relatively low speed for a long dwell time without the necessity of refueling. When one considers the propulsion system for such an aircraft, a reciprocating engine with a serial turbo-charger system to boost rarefied ambient air up to sea level condition, would represent an good, informed and practical choice regardless of the cruising altitude of the aircraft. In this paper, high altitude long endurance aircraft developed by overseas research groups and research trends, regarding multi-stage turbocharger systems, are introduced.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.35-43
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• 2016

UAV has been promoted for practical use in the field of civilian and military. Recently, UAV is required high-specification performance such as long-term flight and precision observation. Among these UAVs, High Altitude Long Endurance UAV(HALE UAV) has been developed for the purpose to replace some of the functions of the satellite such as meteorological observation, communications and internet relay while flying a long period in the stratosphere. In order to fly a long period in harsh environment of the stratosphere, aircraft needs high Lift-Drag-Ratio and weight reduction of the structure. This paper performed the structural analysis for fuselage and empennage of HALE UAV. Critical loading conditions for structural analysis are acquired from flight load analysis and finally the results of structural sizing for weight reduction is presented.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2018

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have been used for various purposes in multiple fields, such as observation, communication relaying, and information acquisition. Nowadays, UAVs must have high performance in order to acquire more precise information in larger amounts than is now possible while performing for long periods. At present, domestically, a high-altitude long-endurance UAV (HALE UAV) for long-term flight in the stratosphere has been developed in order to replace some functions of the satellite. In this study, as a part of structural soundness evaluation of the aircraft structure developed for the HALE UAV, the structural soundness of the fasteners of the fuselage and tail is evaluated by calculating the margin of safety(M.S). The result confirms the validity of the design of the fasteners in the aircraft structure of the UAV.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.468-477
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• 2014

In this research, how a solar powered HALE (high altitude long endurance) UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) can climb and reach mission altitude, 18km, starting from the ground using only solar energy. A glider type aircraft was assumed as a baseline configuration which has wing area of $35.98m^2$ and aspect ratio of 25. Configuration parameters, lift and drag coefficients were calculated using OpenVSP and XFLR5 that are NASA open source programs, and climb flights were predicted through energy balance between available energy from solar power and energy necessary for a climb flight. Minimum time climb flight was obtained by minimizing flight velocities at each altitude and total time and total energy consumption to reach the mission altitude were predicted for different take off time. Also, aircraft moving distances due to westerly wind and flight speed were calculated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.189-192
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• 2014

Recently, development of electric powered UAV for high altitude and long endurance mission has been conducted worldwide. Long endurance requirement necessitates high lift over drag (L/D) aerodynamic characteristics and lightweight structures, leading to highly flexible wings with high aspect ratio. These highly flexible wings increase the danger of catastrophic aircraft failure due to flutter, which is a dynamic aeroelastic instability occurring from the interaction of aerodynamic, inertial, and elastic forces acting on the aircraft flying through the air. In this paper, flexible wing for electric powered UAV whose skin is fabricated using mylar film for lightweight design is briefly explained. In addition, flutter analysis procedures and results for the flexible wing in order to substantiate the aeroelastic stability requirements are presented.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.401-407
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• 2016

This paper introduces 3-dimensional path planning and guidance including power model for high altitude long endurance (HALE) UAV using solar energy. Dubins curve used in this paper has advantage of being directly available to apply path planning. However, most of the path planning problems using Dubins curve are defined in a two-dimensional plan. So, we used 3-dimensional Dubins path generation algorithm which was studied by Randal W. Beard. The aircraft model which used in this paper does not have an aileron. So we designed lateral controller by using a rudder. And then, we were conducted path tracking simulations by using a nonlinear path tracking algorithm. We generate examples according to altitude conditions. From the path tracking simulation results, we confirm that the path tracking is well on the flight path. Finally, we were modeling the power system of HALE UAVs and conducting path tracking simulation during 48hours. Modeling the amount of power generated by the solar cell through the calculation of the solar energy yield. And, we show the 48hours path tracking simulation results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.35-43
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• 2017

Research for solar-powered high altitude long endurance(HALE) UAV was conducted by Korea Aerospace Research Institute(KARI), and the EAV-3 with 19.5m wing span was developed. For HALE flight, aircraft should be lightly designed. Especially, airframe structure that accounts for a large portion of the total weight of aircraft should be lightweight. In this paper, development process of airframe structure for solar-powered HALE UAV, EAV-3, is described briefly. Domestic developed T-800 grade CFRP(Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) composite material with high modulus and strength was used to design main load carrying structures. Flightloads analysis that takes into account large structural deformation was carried out. Stress and flutter analyses for airframe structure sizing were conducted. Static strength test for main wing and aircraft ground vibration test were conducted successfully and structural integrity was secured.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2014

Recent developments for high altitude, long endurance conventional UAVs(HALE UAVs) have revealed new issues regarding aircraft structure design and analysis. First of all, due to intensive mission requirements, the structures of HALE UAVs have lightweight and very flexible main wing with high aspect ratio, and slender fuselage. For this kind of structures, aeroelastic characteristics are different from conventional aircrafts. Hence, currently developed analysis methods are not suitable to fully understand strucutral dynamics of the very flexible aircraft, and to guarantee structural reliability. Therefore, various structural studies considering nonlinear behaviors which are generally ignored for the conventional aircraft strucutral analyis have been attracting researchers interests. Nonlinear flutter of the very flexible wing is one of the subject to be studied in combination with strong coupling between aeroelastic characteristics and flight dynamics. Herein, as preliminary study, modeling and nonlinear system analysis of the 2D airfoild with torsional nonlinearity have been discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.10a
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• pp.226-231
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• 2013

Recent developments for high altitude, long endurance conventional UAVs (HALE UAVs) have revealed new issues regarding aircraft structure design and analysis. First of all, due to intensive mission requirements, the structures of HALE UAVs have lightweight and very flexible main wing with high aspect ratio, and slender fuselage. For this kind of structures, aeroelastic characteristics are different from conventional aircrafts. Hence, currently developed analysis methods are not suitable to fully understand strucutral dynamics of the very flexible aircraft, and to guarantee structural reliability. Therefore, various structural studies considering nonlinear behaviors which are generally ignored for the conventional aircraft strucutral analyis have been attracting researchers interests. Nonlinear flutter of the very flexible wing is one of the subject to be studied in combination with strong coupling between aeroelastic characteristics and flight dynamics. Herein, as preliminary study, modeling and nonlinear system analysis of the 2D airfoild with torsional nonlinearity have been discussed.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.99-105
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• 2006

In this study, nonlinear static and dynamic aeroelastic analyses for a high-aspect-ratio wing have been performed. To achieve these aims, the transonic small disturbance (TSD) theory for the aerodynamic analysis and the large deflection beam theory considering a geometrical nonlinearity for the structural analysis are applied, respectively. For the coupling between fluid and structure, the transformation of a displacement from the structural mesh to the aerodynamic grid is performed by a shape function which is used for the finite element and the inverse transformation of force by work equivalent load method. To validate the current method, the present analysis results of a high-aspect-ratio wing are compared with the experimental results. Static deformations in the vertical and torsional directions caused by an angle of attack and gravity loading are compared with experimental results. Also, static and dynamic aeroelastic characteristics are investigated. The comparisons of the flutter speed and frequency between a linear and nonlinear analysis are presented.