RANS Simulation Validation of a Small Sensor Turret for UAVs
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 32, Issue 5
Abstract
Recent Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) design procedures rely on full aircraft steady-state Reynolds-Averaged-Navier-Stokes (RANS) analyses in early design stages. Small sensor turrets are included in such simulations, even though their aerodynamic properties show highly unsteady behavior. Very little is known about the effects of this approach on the simulation outcomes of small turrets. Therefore, the flow around a model turret at a Reynolds number of 47,400 is simulated with a steady-state RANS approach and compared to experimental data. Lift, drag, and surface pressure show good agreement with the experiment. The RANS model predicts the separation location too far downstream and shows a larger recirculation region aft of the body. Both characteristic arch and horseshoe vortex structures are visualized and qualitatively match the ones found by the experiment. The Reynolds number dependence of the drag coefficient follows the trend of a sphere within a distinct range. The outcomes indicate that a steady-state RANS model of a small sensor turret is able to give results that are useful for UAV engineering purposes but might not be suited for detailed insight into flow properties.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Siemens PLM Software for providing academic licenses of their software StarCCM+.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 32 • Issue 5 • September 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 1, 2018
Accepted: Mar 19, 2019
Published online: May 31, 2019
Published in print: Sep 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Oct 31, 2019
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