Research Information System
27th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences 2010, ICAS 2010, Nice, France, 19 - 24 September 2010, vol.4, pp.3157-3163, (Full Text)
The paper discusses the aerodynamic performance of a ducted fan UAV during hover flight. The design refinement is carried out through the analysis of the experimental data of various control surface configurations of the ducted fan UAV. The effects of various arrangements as well as the positioning of control surfaces on the control effectiveness of the ducted fan UAV are discussed. Moreover, comparisons between the single propeller motor and the twin propeller motor (counter-rotating) configurations are drawn from various aspects such as the thrust, control power and slipstream velocity. It is observed that the single propeller configuration of the ducted fan UAV possess inadequate control authority whereas, the twin propeller configuration exhibit desired controllability for hover mission segment and improved thrust performance.