Aerodynamic Studies of UCAV at Different Flying Conditions by Experimental and Computational Methods

Abstract

A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study was conducted on an Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) configuration. The UCAV configuration of interest to this study is a moderately swept, tailless, flying wing, that allows for low observability in hostile environmental rather than high maneuverability to achieve survivability. The main objective of the paper is to understand qualitatively the extent of drag offered by a media to the motion of UCAV. The scaled model of UCAV is generated by Rapid Prototyping technique. Essentially the investigation is on observing the vortex flow in the wake of moving bodies. The aerodynamic studies were carried out in a wind tunnel for different angles of attack. Further the computed results for Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) are compared against the measured wind tunnel results. All CFD computations were conducted using STAR CCM+ CFD code.