FINITE ELEMENT STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS TOWARDS THE STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING OF A REMOTELY PILOTED AIRCRAFT WING SPAR
Dioser F. dos Santos1; Tiago dos Santos1
1 Universidade Federal de Santa Maria
doi:10.20906/CPS/CILAMCE2017-0502
Resumo
This paper covers a numerical analysis with the purpose of building a trustworthy model for predicting location and magnitude of critical stresses in an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, based on telemetry generated flight parameters. This work is part of a greater effort in introducing the concept of Structural Health Monitoring into the Remotely Piloted Aircraft industry, with the main goal of providing safer operational conditions for associated equipment. In this sense, an analytical development is carried to estimate air loads to be applied to a finite element model of a UAV wing. The numerical analysis is intended to identify maximum stresses and corresponding locations at the wing spars, depending on flight conditions. Three different load cases are considered, based on distinct combinations of flight parameters. Two of these conditions represent critical situations known from the design process. The other one is an intermediate case, obtained from a set of flight data acquired by a telemetry system. This sort of analysis is important for knowing critical spots in the structure for further developments regarding in situ Structural Health Monitoring.
Palavras-chave: Finite Element Analysis; Remotely Piloted Aircraft; Structural Health Monitoring