Design Process and Advanced Manufacturing of an Aquatic Surface Vehicle Hull for the Integration of a Hydrogen Power Plant Propulsion System
Jordi Renau Martínez,
Víctor García Peñas,
Manuel Ibáñez Arnal
et al.
Abstract:This article presents the design and manufacturing of a hydrogen-powered unmanned aquatic surface vehicle (USV) hull. The design process comprised three stages: (1) defining the requirements for a preliminary geometry, (2) verifying the hydrodynamic hull performance using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, and (3) experimentally validating the hydrodynamic hull performance and CFD analysis results through experimental fluid dynamics in a calm water towing tank. The manufacturing process utilized a… Show more
Ice accretion on aircrafts due to atmospheric conditions is still a relevant research topic, especially in the case of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), due to their smaller size and the relative underdevelopment of ice protection systems (anti-icing and de-icing) for these aircraft. For the research and development of these systems, it is necessary to assess their performance in icing wind tunnels (IWTs), which are generally high-cost facilities. This article describes the design and building process of a new IWT for testing fixed-wing UAVs, aimed at cost reduction and restricted to an existing cold climate chamber of limited size. The designed IWT is an open-circuit type with two corners, a test section size of 0.40 m × 0.27 m and speed up to 70 m/s. The design process employs widely used and proven semi-empirical formulas, supported by detailed calculations using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools, to achieve a test section core of useful quality and avoid flow separation. Theoretical limits with respect to a usable droplet size and Liquid Water Content (LWC) are calculated, and the test section core is estimated. The design process followed proves to be a very good approach to the design and aerodynamic optimisation of a low-cost IWT.
Ice accretion on aircrafts due to atmospheric conditions is still a relevant research topic, especially in the case of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), due to their smaller size and the relative underdevelopment of ice protection systems (anti-icing and de-icing) for these aircraft. For the research and development of these systems, it is necessary to assess their performance in icing wind tunnels (IWTs), which are generally high-cost facilities. This article describes the design and building process of a new IWT for testing fixed-wing UAVs, aimed at cost reduction and restricted to an existing cold climate chamber of limited size. The designed IWT is an open-circuit type with two corners, a test section size of 0.40 m × 0.27 m and speed up to 70 m/s. The design process employs widely used and proven semi-empirical formulas, supported by detailed calculations using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools, to achieve a test section core of useful quality and avoid flow separation. Theoretical limits with respect to a usable droplet size and Liquid Water Content (LWC) are calculated, and the test section core is estimated. The design process followed proves to be a very good approach to the design and aerodynamic optimisation of a low-cost IWT.
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