Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Design and Analysis of a Solar-Power Mini-UAV for Extended Endurance at Low Altitude

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A solar-powered mini-UAV has been designed for long-endurance performance at low altitude, reflecting practical constraints from preceding experience of authors. The parametric analysis of the solar-power propulsion system is the primary interest of the present study, along with the power requirement estimation of the aircraft design. To cope with the wide range of flight speed, low-Reynolds number airfoils are selected, which possesses low drag characteristics at wide range of angle of attack. Aerodynamic design studies point out that maintaining Reynolds number above 100,000 is a requisite for extended flight operations of the solar-powered mini-UAV. The itemized drag prediction of the UAV design is performed based on the Xflr5 analysis of the UAV configuration. The solar modules and battery systems of the UAV design are represented as equivalent electric models, for the performance simulation of the solar-power propulsion system. Rigorous analyses on the seasonal solar radiation indicate that the capacity of the battery pack should be increased over 50% of the current design to provide continuous operation of the mini-UAV up to 60 days.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

\( \alpha_{ \rm{max} } \) :

Incident angle of sunlight

\( I_{ \rm{max} } \) :

Maximum irradiance

\( I_{\text{DN}} \) :

Direct normal irradiation

\( T_{\text{day}} \) :

The duration of sunshine

\( T_{\text{sunrise}} \) :

The time of sunrise

\( {\text{t}} \) :

Flight time

\( Re \) :

Reynolds number

\( S_{\text{wet,Tailboom}} \) :

Wetted area of tail boom

\( S_{\text{platearea}} \) :

Interference area

\( C_{\text{L}} \) :

Lift coefficient

\( e \) :

Oswald’s coefficient

\( {\text{AR}} \) :

Aspect ratio

\( C_{\text{D,i}} \) :

Induce drag coefficient

\( C_{\text{D,Interference}} \) :

Interference drag coefficient

\( C_{\text{D,Tailboom}} \) :

Tail boom drag coefficient

\( I_{\text{ph}} \) :

Photocurrent

\( I_{\text{d}} \) :

Diode current

\( N_{\text{S}} \) :

Number of cells connected in series

\( V_{\text{T}} \) :

Diode thermal voltage

\( T_{\text{C}} \) :

Actual cell temperature

\( K \) :

Boltzmann constant

\( q \) :

Electron charge

\( A \) :

Ideality factor

\( a \) :

Modified ideality factor

\( I_{p} \) :

Current leak in parallel resistor

\( I_{0} \) :

Reverse saturation or leakage current

G :

Irradiance

\( \mu_{\text{sc}} \) :

Coefficient temperature of short circuit current

\( V_{\text{OC}} \) :

Open circuit voltage

\( I_{\text{SC}} \) :

Short circuit current

References

  1. Boucher RJ (1985) Sunrise, the world’s first solar-powered airplane. J Aircr 22(10):840–846

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Airbus S.A.S web page (2018) Zephyr, Pioneering the Stratosphere. https://www.airbus.com/defence/uav/zephyr.html. Accessed 2018

  3. Ahn J, Kim N, Lee S (1990) Preliminary design of a solar powered HALE airplane. J Korean Soc Aeronaut Space Sci 18(2):90–98

    Google Scholar 

  4. Ahn H, Ahn J (2017) Performance analysis of a small solar powered UAV considering design variables. In: Proceedings of 2017 Korean Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences Spring conference, pp 59–61

  5. Gudmumdsson S (2014) General aviation aircraft design: applied methods and procedure, 1st edn. Elsevier, New York

    Google Scholar 

  6. Nguyen XH, Nguyen MP (2015) Mathematical modeling of photovoltaic cell/module/arrays with tags in Matlab/Simulink. Environ Syst Res 4:24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Noth A (2008) Design of solar powered airplanes for continuous flight. Dissertation of Doctor of Technical Sciences, ETH Zurich, 2008

  8. Habati B, Ramdani Y, Moulay F (2014) A detailed modeling of photovoltaic module using MATLAB. J Natl Res Inst Astron Geophys 3(1):53–61

    Google Scholar 

  9. SunPower Corporation product brochure “SunPower C60 Solar Cell”. http://eshop.terms.eu/_data/s_3386/files/1379942540-sunpower_c60_bin_ghi.pdf. Accessed 2018

  10. Ahn J (2011) Conceptual design and performance analysis of a solar powered HALE UAV considering practical constraints. In: Proceedings of 2017 Korean Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences Fall Conference, pp 379–382

  11. Guangtong X, Li L, Xiaohui Z (2016) Modeling and performance analysis for low altitude electric UAVs. In: Proceedings of international conference on civil, transportation and environment, pp 1058–1065

  12. Vyroubal P, Maxa J, Kazda T (2014) Simulation of the behavior of the lithium ion battery. Adv Mil Technol 9(1):107–115

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted with supports from the project of Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2016937799), “Development of High Efficiency/Low Noise Propeller Design for Multi-Copter Small UAV”. The authors would like to present a sincere gratitude to the people of Unmanned Vehicle Advanced Research Center (UVARC) of Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Daejon, Korea.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul, 05006, Republic of Korea

    Hyunjoong Ahn & Jon Ahn

Authors
  1. Hyunjoong Ahn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jon Ahn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jon Ahn.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ahn, H., Ahn, J. Design and Analysis of a Solar-Power Mini-UAV for Extended Endurance at Low Altitude. Int. J. Aeronaut. Space Sci. 20, 561–569 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42405-018-0132-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42405-018-0132-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation