Estudio del comportamiento aerodinámico de las deformaciones elásticas en estado transitorio del fluido sobre un perfil de curvatura variable mediante simulación numérica.

Abstract

Variable camber wings have been studied as a way to reduce fuel consumption, increase range and improve efficiency in UAVs. This work presents the numerical and experimental investigation of the deformation capacities of a variable chord mechanism from the profile NACA0012 to 4412 and 8412 and shows the aerodynamic behavior as a function of time. The aerodynamic advantages and disadvantages of elastic deformation were found for application in UAVs in low Reynolds condition. The numerical approach related a parametric code through dynamic mesh, to arrive at the deformation of the target profile in a given period. The step, and the total time of the numerical simulation is obtained from the experimental data as a function of the EVA-Foam material of the physical prototype. A mesh for the aerodynamic profiles was validated complying with the requirements and limitations of the software used as well as the turbulence model. The experimental part consisted of measuring the deformation time and visualizing the behavior of the fluid in the subsonic wind tunnel. Simultaneously, the simulation results are graphically compared to the simulation. These indicated that deformation generates significant aerodynamic efficiency benefits for different flight operations in a single mechanism, but they are limited to mesh geometry, software, and computational cost. As future works, the benefits in other conditions (high Reynolds) must be evaluated to scale the results considering the change in density