• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.65-73
• /
• 2017

Intercoolers for multi-stage turbocharger of the hydrogen reciprocating engine for HALE UAV are installed for reducing the charged air inlet temperature of the engine. The intercooler is air to air, cross flow, plate-fin type and the fin configuration is offset-strip fin which is referenced from the heat exchanger of the ERAST. Most of HALE UAV's cruising altitude is 60,000 ft and the density of air for this altitude is very low compared to sea level. Therefore the required heat transfer area for the HALE UAV is about three-times bigger than the sea level. Consequently, it is essential to design to meet the required efficiency of intercooler in the range of not excessively growing the weight of the heat exchanger. The quasi-one dimensional heat transfer design/analysis for satisfying the requirement of the engine are written in this paper. The numerical analyses for estimating the coolant flow rate of the engine bay and pressure loss in the header and core are also summarized.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2019

Recently, development of long endurance electric powered airplane has been conducted worldwidely. Light structural weight of a main wing with sufficient structural integrity is essential for long endurance flight. Since a main wing with a slender spar can occur catastrophic fracture under the flight, it is important to establish a design and verification method for both the weight reduction and structural integrity. In this paper, structural design and analysis of the main wing of HALE UAV with tubular spar reinforced with a bulkhead were introduced. The static strength test of the main wing was performed to verify structural integrity under the static load. Then, the experimental result was compared with an analytical result from a finite element analysis. It was concluded that the developed light weight main wing would have sufficient structural integrity under the flight operation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.39 no.10
• /
• pp.927-934
• /
• 2011

Design parameter analysis is performed for a solar-powered UAV, storing potential energy by climb flight. Parameters related to the flight for saving potential energy, i.e. minimum & maximum altitudes for level flight, gliding & climbing angle, design point speed & altitude, gliding & climbing start time are investigated as design parameters. Weight and size of the UAV are determined using a weight model for the components of the solar-powered UAVs. Produced energy and consumed energy are calculated using these weight and size, yielding the required weight of the battery for a given mission. Relationship between the total weight of the UAV and each parameter is investigated. For the parameters listed above, there exist their ranges only where the design is possible. And there exist optimal values of these parameters minimizing the total weight.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.38 no.8
• /
• pp.758-766
• /
• 2010

The design procedure of Solar Power UAVs is complicated because the configuration and required power for flight must be considered simultaneously as the supplied power is influenced by the wing area. In order to minimize trial and error for the Solar Power UAVs design, a systematic sizing method is proposed which can be used to determine whether a Solar Power UAV is feasible for a given mission, and to derive preliminary dimensional specification of it. The sizing procedure begins with initially assumed wing area because the power, lift, and drag of the wing are directly proportional to it. The assumed wing area and mission requirements are then used to determine step by step the airfoil specifications including lift coefficient and drag coefficient, weight, required power, and wing area. This procedure is iterated for each newly assumed wing area until the error between the assumed wing area and calculated wing area becomes significantly small enough. This sizing methodology was applied to previously developed Solar Power UAVs for validation purposes, resulting in good agreement. The methodology was also applied to determine the dimensions and specifications of the Solar Power High-Altitude Long-Endurance UAV.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.77-84
• /
• 2015

Recently, as the needs for eco-friendly aero propulsion system increase gradually, many study works have been conducted to develop the hybrid propulsion system for High Altitude Long Endurance(HALE) UAV. In this study, we analyzed both suitable energy distribution and management methodology among the total energy collected from solar cell and the total required energy of aerial vehicle and required energy of the regenerative fuel cell(RFC) for driving in the night time and optimized the energy balance mechanism based on the ascribed mission profile.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.31-36
• /
• 2015

A multi-stage turbocharger system has been constructed for HALE UAV internal combustion engine. To boost rarefied intake air up to sea level condition, the turbocharger system should consist of 3 stages including heat exchanger located after compressor outlet to drop compressed air temperature. One dimensional system analysis has been conducted by matching required power between compressor and turbine and adequate turbochargers have been searched for from commercially available models targeting for automobiles. By applying commercial automobile turbochargers to the multi-stage turbocharger system, it is expected that considerable amount of research resources will be saved.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.51-56
• /
• 2019

To reduce the structural weight, thin-walled circular composite tube has been used as a main spar of high altitude-long endurance unmanned air vehicle(HALE UAV). Predicting the torsional response of stiffened circular spar is complex due to the inhomogeneous nature of section properties, which are dependent on fiber architecture and constituent material properties. The stiffener were placed in the top and bottom sectors of a tube to increase the torsional capabilities such as the rigidity and buckling strength. Numerical simulations were performed to estimate the effect of the stiffener on the torsional capacities. A static experimental test was performed on a stiffened tube, and the test results were compared with a numerical model. The numerical models showed good correlation and demonstrated the ability to predict the torsional capacity. Results presented herein will exhibit the effectiveness of stiffener on torsional strength and stiffness.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.393-404
• /
• 2014

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been applied to not only military missions like surveillance and reconnaissance but also commercial missions like meteorological observation, aerial photograph, communication relay, internet network build and disaster observation. Fuel cells make UAVs eco-friendly by using hydrogen. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) show low operation temperature, high efficiency, low noise and high energy density and those characterisitcs are well fitted with UAVs. Thus Fuel cell based UAVs have been actively developed in the world. Recently, fuel cell UAVs have started to develope for high altitude UAVs because target altitude of UAVs is expanded upto stratosphere altitude. Long endurance of UAVs is essential to improve effects of the missions. Improvement of UAV endurance time could be fulfilled by developing a hydrogen fuel storage system with high energy density and reducing the weight of UAVs. In this paper, research trend and analysis of fuel cell UAVs are introduced in terms of their altitude and endurance time and then the prospect of fuel cell UAVs are shown.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.22-27
• /
• 2015

Hydrogen features highest energy density per mass and is expected to be desirable as a fuel of HALE(High altitude long endurance) UAV(Unmanned aerial vehicle). A reciprocating internal combustion engine is known to be a reliable and economic power source for this kind of UAV. Therefore, the combination of hydrogen and engine is worth of doing research. Test bench with 2.4L Spark-Ignited engine was prepared for the experiment in which start and combustion characteristics at idle condition were examined in this study. Stable hydrogen supply system and a universal ECU(Engine control unit) were also utilized for the test engine. Equivalence ratio and spark timings at idle operation were investigated and compared to the data of gasoline engine. The results will be a starting point for full-scale research of hydrogen engine for HALE UAV.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.40 no.7
• /
• pp.590-600
• /
• 2012

In this research, generalized sizing methods were studied that can be applied to an aircraft which uses solar cell or fuel cell as energy sources. To consider multiple propulsion systems and energy resources, multiple power paths were modeled and the weight of consumable and non-consumable energy was reflected in the weight change calculation for each mission segments. In the constraint analysis, power to weight ratio was selected instead of thrust to weight ratio and used in the sizing process of balancing power and energy.