The results thus far have been reached by using cost and power output as the main parameters. For the fuel cell type selection these parameters limited the type chosen to the PEM fuel cell, which is run on pure hydrogen, a fuel that is readily available via hydrogen generators supplied by the mechanical engineering department. The equations and calculations done were for the benefit of understanding how the fuel cell system works as well as what variables govern hydrogen flow and airflow needed. Fuel cell model selection was done by using the aforementioned parameters to find a model which had the highest power output while staying within our budget. Throughout the course of this project a significant amount of data on the Skywalker X8 flying wind was gathered. In order to accomplish this, the complex surfaces had to be reverse engineered and rebuilt as a 3-D software model. From this model CFD analysis offered through SolidWorks CAD were run for typical UAV flight conditions. The data was then processed in order to extract the airplane coefficients traditionally gathered from wind tunnel experiments. This data replaced data gathered using XFLR5, which makes calculations based on wind and airfoil theory, as it seemed more accurate overall. Despite this rigorous data collection, once test flights began, there was still much difficulty achieving successful flight. A major contributor to this was lack of airplane experience. A multitude of factors, such as wind speed, weight dislodging, electronic malfunction, or damage at launch make it especially difficult to decipher exactly what went wrong to cause a crash, which was equally true for the successful flights as well. Fortunately, most of these issues were resolved in the end, ultimately leading to a successful flight. The major obstacle was finding the right balance between thrust (ie. motor size), overall stability, and low speed lift generation. Although flying wings are “low profile”,
The results thus far have been reached by using cost and power output as the main parameters. For the fuel cell type selection these parameters limited the type chosen to the PEM fuel cell, which is run on pure hydrogen, a fuel that is readily available via hydrogen generators supplied by the mechanical engineering department. The equations and calculations done were for the benefit of understanding how the fuel cell system works as well as what variables govern hydrogen flow and airflow needed. Fuel cell model selection was done by using the aforementioned parameters to find a model which had the highest power output while staying within our budget. Throughout the course of this project a significant amount of data on the Skywalker X8 flying wind was gathered. In order to accomplish this, the complex surfaces had to be reverse engineered and rebuilt as a 3-D software model. From this model CFD analysis offered through SolidWorks CAD were run for typical UAV flight conditions. The data was then processed in order to extract the airplane coefficients traditionally gathered from wind tunnel experiments. This data replaced data gathered using XFLR5, which makes calculations based on wind and airfoil theory, as it seemed more accurate overall. Despite this rigorous data collection, once test flights began, there was still much difficulty achieving successful flight. A major contributor to this was lack of airplane experience. A multitude of factors, such as wind speed, weight dislodging, electronic malfunction, or damage at launch make it especially difficult to decipher exactly what went wrong to cause a crash, which was equally true for the successful flights as well. Fortunately, most of these issues were resolved in the end, ultimately leading to a successful flight. The major obstacle was finding the right balance between thrust (ie. motor size), overall stability, and low speed lift generation. Although flying wings are “low profile”,
Finalreport-FCUAV.docx