Numerical analysis of tubercles leading edge for unmanned aerial vehicle composite wing

The demand of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology received growing interest from today’s engineers in designing and manufacturing the products within a short time and at reasonable price. The wide availability of modern and developing composite materials and the aid of computer systems had made the demand becoming possible and achievable. The proposed research consist of fundamental numerical work and experimental work. The study applied the Finite Element (FE) analysis and developed a standardized numerical approach for structural optimization subjected to tubercles design at the leading edge of NACA4415 wing with composite material, known as FE-ACP simulation. The study is crucial in order to optimize the structural behavior of spherical tubercles pattern at the leading edge of straight, untapered and unswept wing. The previous studies proved its superior aerodynamic advantages from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) perspective on the same tubercles design. Therefore, structural characteristic including the external and internal components of the wing should be taken into consideration to achieve the superiority of high strength-to-weight ratio in regards to the application of UAV. Up-to-date, the simulation software, ANSYS is widely used in solving the FE problems subjected to composite materials. The composite modelling of the wing design is developed using ANSYS Composite PrePost (ACP) module, whereby a preliminary simulation is prepared in terms of the designation of composite materials and its impact of wing deformation. In details, the parametric study is carried out, by which the structure of the wing is optimized through optimal composite ply orientation and optimal design configuration subjected to wing stiffness and also criticality of loading requirements for structural failure. Failure criteria of Tsai-Wu and Hashin play important role in determining the optimal design of tubercles wing subjected to strength and stiffness, which is able to be obtained. The experimental study of the designation of composite at the wing skin is conducted in order to prove the simulation validity through material characteristics. Hence, from this study, 50.27% improvement is obtained by applying the TLE wing design with semi-monocoque-foam-reinforced proven the significant of current research area on optimal performance of wing in the perspectives of composite structural optimization.

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