In-Flight Demonstration of Stall Improvement Using a Plasma Actuator for a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Aerospace

Hiroshi Yoneda¹  Satoshi Sekimoto²  Kozo Fujii²  Hiroki Kato³ 

[1] Department of Aerospace Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Teikyo University, Utsunomiya 320-8551, Japan;Department of Information and Computer Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo 125-8585, Japan;Independent Researcher, Tochigi 320-0834, Japan;

关键词: plasma actuator;    unmanned aerial vehicle;    flight testing;    stall delay;    autonomous flight system;    small high-voltage power supply;   

DOI  :  10.3390/aerospace9030144

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The flow control capability (especially for separation control) of a dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma actuator (DBD-PA) has been investigated extensively. However, these studies have been conducted under ideal conditions, such as wind tunnels and computational environments, and limited studies have investigated the effects of plasma actuators in an actual environment. In this study, the flow control capability of a DBD-PA under natural and in-flight conditions was investigated via field flight tests using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The DBD-PA driving system was constructed with a small high-voltage power supply on a 2-m-span UAV. With the support of an autonomous flight system, the pitch angle gradually increased as the airspeed decreased, and the stall occurred from the cruise state. This flight procedure was conducted with the DBD-PA on or off, and 246 pairs of flights were operated. The results revealed that a flight state with a higher pitch angle and lower airspeed occurred when DBD-PA was switched on. In addition, the moment of stall was quantitatively determined from the flight log, and it was confirmed that the maximum pitch angle when DBD-PA was switched on tended to be larger than that when DBD-PA was switched off. These results indicate that flow control with a DBD-PA on a 2-m-span UAV was effective in natural and in-flight situations.

【 授权许可】

Unknown