Question:
Research and design a small smart drone, use CAD package to design the drone model and investigate the aerodynamic performance using CFD and wind tunnel test. Then optimist the design for best aerodynamic performance.
Answer:
A very great focusof manyresearchers andcompanies nowadays is the studyof dronesand smart drones. Smart droneshave proven to beuseful in manysituationsas theycancarry out a myriad of taskssuch assearch and rescue, surveillance, mapping of unknown environments, and so on. Thisproject intends to design a small smart drone to meet specificmission objectives. After the mission is chosen, a research will be carried out to come out with the best design and material for fabrication. The design will be made using CAD(CATIA) and will be tested using a CFD tool suchas ANSYS. The design may then be iterated to optimize it forbest aerodynamicperformance before going into fabrication stage. The drone will be fabricated and then tested using stress testingand wind tunneltests and the resultswill be compared to the results obtained fromCFD analysis.
Introduction
An introduction serves to introduce the topicand give an insight about whyit was chosen and itssignificance. In thisproject, theintroduction will help in giving a broad and general ideaabout dronesand what are the types of them. Also it will give an idea about the purposes forwhich dronesare used.
a. Introduction about drones and their types, advantages and uses
b. Missions and howdrone categorizes into them
Literature Search
The literature review is the first thing to carry out in anyresearch. It is used to give an insight about previouswork in the same topic. Thisallows the development of ideasand build on ideas alreadyimplemented. Forthe purposesof our research, a literature search will be carried on thefollowing topics to find themost recent work on them and allowfor innovation:
a. Multi-rotordrones
b. Method of Propulsion mentioning how eachwork
c. Typesof aerodynamicand structural loadson a smart droneduring various stagesof flight          (take- off, cruising, and landing)
d. Materialsof which dronesare fabricated andthe advantages and the disadvantagesof each, ending up with our chosen design to meet our requirements.
Mission and propulsion method
The main aimof this sectionis to search and describe the methodscommonly used for propulsion of different kindsof drones. The advantages anddisadvantages will be mentioned and a comparison is made to end up with a decision on which propulsion method will be used for thedrone in the project.
a. Detailed description of missio.
b. Choosethe method of propulsion compatible with the chosen mission.
Design and Analysis
After the mission is chosen and the type of drone is chosen, a design is to be created using CAD and then analyzed using a CFD tool to check its performance before fabrication. This step is vital as it saves a lot of time in fabrication and helps in anticipating the setbacks of the design and iterating the design to meet the optimal performance required. It also makes testing (simulation) different designs manageable and require much less effort. If this step is skipped, huge costs will be spent on iterating the design in hardware and testing it. The design and analysis will take at least two iterations (may require more) to solve the problems in the first design. The steps will be asfollows: