• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.144-153
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• 2017

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been developed and studied for various applications, including drone deliveries, broadcasting, scouting, crop dusting, and firefighting. To enable the wide use of UAVs, their exact aeroacoustic characteristics must be assessed. In this study, a noise prediction method for a ducted fan UAV with complicated geometry was developed. In general, calculation efficiency is increased by simulating a ducted fan UAV without the struts that fix the fuselage to the ducts. However, numerical predictions of noise and aerodynamics differ according to whether struts are present. In terms of aerodynamic performance, the total thrust with and without struts is similar owing to the tendency of the thrust of a blade to offset the drag of the struts. However, in aeroacoustic simulations, the strut effect should be considered in order to predict the UAV's noise because noise from the blades can be changed by the strut effect. Modelling of the strut effect revealed that the dominant tonal noises were closely correlated with the blade passage frequency of the experimental results. Based on the successful detection of noise sources from a ducted fan UAV system, using the proposed noise contribution contour, methods for noise reduction can be suggested by comparing numerical results with measured noise profiles.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.413-422
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• 2012

The ducted fan for a small UAV propulsion can reconnoiter and observe in a town and a small area, it has better thrust efficiency and a long endurance than propeller. Thrust characteristics of hover and for ward flight condition for the ducted fan UAV is important issue to improve a endurance. The unsteady 3-dimensional flow fields of the ducted fan UAV is essential to stable flight. In this paper, to verify the design results of the ducted fan and to investigate a stable aeronautical characteristic, the thrust performance and the unsteady 3-dimensional flow fields are measured. Thrust characteristics for the hovering and the forward flight conditions are measured by the 6-components balance system in the subsonic wind tunnel. The unsteady 3-dimensional flow fields are analyzed by using a stationary $45^{\circ}$ slanted hot-wire technique. The swirl velocity is almost removed behind the stator blades. Therefore, the thrust performance of the ducted fan is improved and the flight stability is maintained.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.251-256
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• 2008

The experimental analysis on a ducted fan for the propulsion system of a small UAV were performed. To investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of the ducted fan, flow fields at inlet and outlet were measured using a hot-wire anemometry. Thrusts were measured with the six-component balance with due regard to the cross wind. To reproduce the cross wind effect, the ducted fan was aligned to $90^{\circ}$ rotated direction against flow direction in the wind tunnel. In this paper, the variation of the flow fields and thrust according to the cross wind were analyzed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.387-391
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• 2009

The experimental study on the ducted fan for the propulsion system of a small UAV has been performed. In this paper, to investigate the three-dimensional unsteady flow field characteristics of the ducted fan, it was measured by using a $45^{\circ}$ inclined hot-wire from hub to tip at inlet, behind the rotor and outlet of the ducted fan. The hot-wire signal data was acquired at fixed yaw angle. The data was averaged by using the PLEAT (Phase Locked Ensemble Averaging Technique), and then three of non-linear equations were solved simultaneously by using the Newton-Rhapson numerical method. Flow characteristics such as tip vortex, secondary flow and tip leakage flow were confirmed through axial, radial and tangential contour plot.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2012

This paper discusses the mathematical modeling of a small scale ducted-fan UAV and examines its results in comparison to the wind tunnel test. A wind tunnel test is first performed, producing a substantial amount of test data. The acquired set of wind tunnel test data is then categorized and approximated as mathematical functions. Finally, the mathematically modeled forces and moments acting on the UAV are compared with the acquired wind tunnel data. The analysis involves a gradient-based algorithm and is applied to extract trim states with respect to various flight conditions. Consequently, a numerical analysis demonstrates that there exists a reasonable flight status with respect to airspeed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.574-581
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• 2012

Because of the exposed blade, the UAV using the rotors entail the risks during operation. While a wrapped duct around the fan blades reduces risks, it is a higher thrust performance than the same power load rotor. In this paper, for applying advantages of a ducted fan, the tri-ducted fan air vehicle configuration is proposed. The vehicle has three ducted fans. Two of them are the same shape and size and the third one is the smaller. It is possible to control a rapid attitude stability using thrust vector control. The equations of motion of the tri-ducted fan were derived. Lyapunov control input was applied to the system and stable inputs were derived. A nonlinear simulation was fulfilled by using parameters of a prototype vehicle. It verified a stable attitude and analyzed results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.395-398
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• 2009

Currently, a new generation of ducted fan UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) is under development for a wide range of inspection, investigation and combat missions as well as for a variety of civil roles like traffic monitoring, meteorological studies, hazard mitigation etc. The current study presents extensive results obtained experimentally in order to investigate the tip clearance effects on performance characteristics of a ducted fan for small UAV systems. Three ducted fans having different tip clearance gap and with same rotor size were examined under three different yawed conditions of calibrated slanted hot-wire probe. Three dimensional velocity flow fields were measured from hub to tip at outlet of the ducted fan. The analysis of data were done by PLEAT (Phase locked Ensemble Averaging Technique) and three non-linear differential equations were solved simultaneously by using Newton -Rhapson numerical method. Flow field characteristics such as tip vortex and secondary flow were confirmed through axial, radial and tangential velocity contour plots. At the same time, the effects of tip clearance on axial thrust and input power were also investigated by using wind tunnel measurement system. For enhancing the performance of ducted fan, tip clearance level should be as small as possible.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.516-523
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• 2013

The tip clearance effect on counter-rotating ducted fan of VTOL UAV in hovering condition, was investigate using computational analysis. The $k-{\omega}$ SST turbulence model is employed in this study. The numerical results of baseline model are validated by wind tunnel test in hovering and forward conditions. It is observed that if tip clearance of one rotor in the counter-rotating ducted fan increase then the thrust coefficient of another rotor increases. In Addition to this, when the tip clearance of the rear rotor increases, the thrust of the ducted fan is improved due to increasing of average total pressure at exit plane.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.832-833
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• 2009

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2022

Wind tunnel test for a small scale electric ducted fan with a 104mm diameter was conducted to analyze the aerodynamic characteristics when it was used as a propulsion system of tilt-propeller UAV. Experimental conditions were derived from flight conditions of a sub-scaled OPPAV. Forces and moments of the ducted fan model were measured by a 6-axis balance and 3-dimensional wake vectors which could induce an aerodynamic influence in the vehicle were measured by 5-hole probes. Thrust and torque on hover and cruise conditions were measured and analyzed to drive out the operating conditions when it was applied in the sub-scaled OPPAV. On transition conditions, thrust keep its value with tilt angle variation below 40° and increase after that. But, sideforce increase constantly until 75°. The maximum axial velocity in the wake on hover and cruise conditions was around 60m/s and tangential velocity was around 12m/s. The position of the maximum axial velocity and vortex center move off the fan rotation center line as the tilt angle increases.