Aerodynamic Analysis of the Blended Wing Body Type MAV using the Time-Domain Panel Method

Abstract

A time-domain panel method based on the potential flow theory and the time-stepping method is developed to predict the steady/unsteady aerodynamic characteristics of FM07, which is the BWB (Blended-wing body) type MAV. In the aerodynamic analyses, we used two types of the initial model(Case I) and the improved model(Case II), which is moved the gravity center toward the rear and has larger aspect ratio. In the steady aerodynamic analyses, it is revealed that improved model has higher lift to drag ratio(L/D) and more stable pitch characteristic than those of the initial model. In the unsteady aerodynamic analyses for sudden acceleration motion similar to the launch phase of MAV, it seemed that there is a rapid increase of the lift coefficient after the launch and unsteady results are good agreed compare with steady results in just a few times. In the analysis for pitch oscillation motion, which is occurred at the cruise condition of the FM07, it shows that unsteady aerodynamic coefficients looped around steady results and the improved model has more sensitive aerodynamic characteristics.