• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.30-44
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• 2021

Experimental investigation of counter-rotating propellers is subject to multiple time and cost constraint because of additional design parameters unlike single propeller. Also, a lot of computing time and resources are required for numerical analysis due to consideration of the interference between the upper and lower propellers. In the present study, numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the hover performance of counter-rotating propellers by using actuator method which is considered to be time-efficient. The accuracy of the present numerical methods was validated by comparing the ANSYS Fluent which is commercial CFD code. The axial spacing and rotational speed were selected as the analysis variables, and the aerodynamic performance was obtained under various conditions. Based on the obtained results, the Figure of Merit (FM) of single propeller and counter-rotating propellers and a prediction factor which enables prediction of counter-rotating propeller performance using a single propeller were derived to evaluate availability of the actuator method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.56-64
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• 2005

It is prerequisite that we have to fomulate the nonlinear mathematical modeling to design the guidance and control system of rotorcraft-based unmanned aerial vehicle using a small-scaled commercial helicopter. The small-scaled helicopters are very different from the full-scale helicopters in dynamic behavior such as high rotation speed and high frequency dynamic characteristics. In this paper, the formulation of the mathematical model of the small-scaled helicopter to minimize the complexity is presented by component and source build-up approach. It is linearized at the trim condition of hovering and forward flight and analyzed the flight modes. The results of this approach have general trends but a little difference. To verify this approach, it is necessary to compare this theoretical model with experimental results by system identification using flight test as a next research topic.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.10
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• pp.677-690
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• 2022

By using an actuator disk method based flow solver, aerodynamic analysis is carried out for a dual ducted fan aircraft, which is one of the VTOL compound aircrafts, and its associated ground effect is analyzed. The characteristics and accuracy of the solver for ground effect analysis is evaluated through a comparison with the results obtained from the sliding mesh technique. The aerodynamic performance and flow field characteristics with respect to the distance from the ground are analyzed. As the ground distance decreases, the fan thrust increases, but the deterioration of total normal force and hovering flight efficiency is identified owing to the decrease in the vertical force of the duct, fuselage, and wing. By examining the flow field in the bottom of the fuselage, the ground vortices and fountain flow generated by the interaction of the fan wake and ground are identified, and their influence on the aerodynamic performance is analyzed. The strength and characteristics of outwash with respect to the ground distance and azimuth direction are analyzed through comparison/examination of velocity profile. Influence of the ground effect with respect to collective pitch angle is also identified.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.1073-1079
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• 2009

The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method can identify principal modes that optimally capture the energy content from large multi-dimensional data set. In this study unsteady pressure fields on the rotor blade surface of a helicopter in forward flight are expressed by a reduced order model based on the POD method. Special modes containing high energy are analyzed to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics in more efficient way. The CFD simulation of flowfields around helicopter rotor blade in hovering motion is also conducted to validate its prediction with experimental result. In the process 7 modes containing energy ratio 99% from 240 snapshots information are identified and utilized to construct a reduced order model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.243-250
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• 2012

In this paper, a systematic consequence of evaluation method, procedure, and flight data analysis is investigated for application of ADS-33E-PRF to UAV. And it is applied to unmanned rotorcraft for evaluation. CNUHELI-020, which is developed in Chungnam National University, is used for assessment of handling quality: decoupled longitudinal and lateral/directional model were used to assess handling qualities. Evaluation flight maneuvers are categorized as hover/low-speed requirements, small-amplitude attitude change, and moderate-amplitude attitude change requirements.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.36-43
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• 2017

Blade design optimization of QTP-UAV prop-rotor was conducted using ModelCenter(R). Performance efficiency of the blade in hover and forward flight were adopted as the multi-objective function. Required power and pitch link force applied to constraint in each flight mode and limited lower than the value of the baseline blade. Design variables of root chord length of the blade, taper ratio, twist slope, twist angle at 0.5R of the blade, anhedral angle, parabolic coefficient of a tip shape and location of airfoil were used to generate the blade planform. CAMRAD-II, the comprehensive analysis program of rotorcraft, was used for performance analysis of prop-rotor blade in design process. Performance of the optimized blade improved 1.6% of figure of merit in hover and 13.6% of propulsive efficiency in forward flight. Pitch link force also reduced approximately 30% less than that of the baseline blade.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.53-59
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• 2022

In this study, an experimental device was fabricated to evaluate the hovering flight performance of a single rotor on a hexacopter used for river surveillance, and a thrust performance test was conducted. In addition, the 3D profile of the propeller was extracted by 3D scanning and CFD analysis was performed using ANSYS CFD 14.5 based on the extracted 3D model of the propeller. The aerodynamic characteristics were compared with the results of the performance tests and CFD analysis, and the vortex structure corresponding to each motor rotational speed in revolutions per minute (rpm) was identified. In the future, we plan to provide valuable data for multicopter propeller design and performance verification.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.153-165
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• 2014

Multi-rotor UAVs are utilized in various fields because of the advantages such that a hovering capability such as helicopters, a simple structure and a relatively high thrust. Recently, AR.Drone manufactured by Parrot is easily operated by beginner due to its internal stabilization loop in the on-board computer and it can be easily applied on various researches for the multi-rotor UAVs by providing an SDK(Software Development Kit). Further this platform can be suitably used for application to swarm flight since it is low cost and relatively small. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the development process of the controller for indoor swarm flight by using the AR.Drone.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.469-478
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• 2019

Multirotor configurations such as VTOL and urban air mobility have been focused on today due to the high maneuverability. Aerodynamic and aeroacoustic characteristics of multirotor have much difference to those of a single rotor. In this study, a numerical analysis based on the free wake vortex lattice method is used for identifying the wake interaction effect. In order to compare the various configurations and operating conditions, the effects of the spacing between the rotors in hovering flight and the effects of the advancing ratio and the formation in forward flight are discussed. In the hovering flight, the unsteady loading of multirotor changes periodically and loading fluctuation increases as decreasing the spacing. It causes the variation in unsteady loading noise and the noise directivity pattern. In the forward flight, the difference in loading fluctuation and noise characteristics are observed according to the diamond and square formation of rotors. By comparing with results of single rotor analysis, multirotor configurations have different directivity pattern and amplitude of loading noise according to the location of each rotor. As a result, wake interaction effect becomes a highly important factor for aerodynamic and aeroacoustic analysis according to multirotor configurations and operating conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.823-832
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• 2018

In general, the fidelity of the aircraft dynamic model is verified by comparison with the flight test results of the target aircraft. Therefore, the reference flight data for performance comparisons must be extracted. This process requires a lot of time and manpower to extract useful data from the vast quantity of flight test data containing various noise for comparing fidelity. In particular, processing of flight data is complex because rotorcraft have high non-linearity characteristics such as coupling and wake interference effect and perform various maneuvers such as hover and backward flight. This study defines flight data processing criteria for rotorcraft and provides procedures and methods for automated processing of static and dynamic flight data using data mining techniques. Finally, the methods presented are validated using flight data.