VTechWorks staff will be away for the winter holidays starting Tuesday, December 24, 2024, through Wednesday, January 1, 2025, and will not be replying to requests during this time. Thank you for your patience, and happy holidays!
 

Macro Fiber Composite Actuated Unmanned Air Vehicles: Design, Development, and Testing

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorBilgen, Onuren
dc.contributor.committeechairKurdila, Andrew J.en
dc.contributor.committeecochairInman, Daniel J.en
dc.contributor.committeememberWicks, Alfred L.en
dc.contributor.committeememberKochersberger, Kevin B.en
dc.contributor.departmentMechanical Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:38:16Zen
dc.date.adate2007-05-25en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:38:16Zen
dc.date.issued2007-05-10en
dc.date.rdate2007-05-25en
dc.date.sdate2007-05-22en
dc.description.abstractThe design and implementation of a morphing unmanned aircraft using smart materials is presented. Articulated lifting surfaces and articulated wing sections actuated by servos are difficult to instrument and fabricate in a repeatable fashion on thin, composite-wing micro-air-vehicles. Assembly is complex and time consuming. A type of piezoceramic composite actuator commonly known as Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) is used for wing morphing. The actuation capability of this actuator on fiberglass unimorph was modeled by the Rayleigh-Ritz method and quantified by experimentation. Wind tunnel tests were performed to compare conventional trailing edge control surface effectiveness to an MFC actuated wing section. The continuous surface of the MFC actuated composite airfoil produced lower drag and wider actuation bandwidth. The MFC actuators were implemented on a 0.76 m wingspan aircraft. The remotely piloted experimental vehicle was flown using two MFC patches in an elevator/aileron (elevon) configuration. Preliminary testing has proven the stability and control of the design. Flight tests were performed to quantify roll control using the actuators. Force and moment coefficients were measured in a low-speed, open section wind tunnel, and the database of aerodynamic derivatives were used to analyze control response.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-05222007-093740en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05222007-093740/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/33117en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartreadme.txten
dc.relation.haspartOB_MSThesis_final.pdfen
dc.relation.haspartMS_thesis_video_compress.moven
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectcomposite materialsen
dc.subjectunimorph structureen
dc.subjectmorphing wingen
dc.subjectMacro Fiber Compositeen
dc.subjectmicro air vehiclesen
dc.titleMacro Fiber Composite Actuated Unmanned Air Vehicles: Design, Development, and Testingen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineMechanical Engineeringen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
Name:
readme.txt
Size:
313 B
Format:
Plain Text
Download
Thumbnail Image
Name:
OB_MSThesis_final.pdf
Size:
3.61 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
Name:
MS_thesis_video_compress.mov
Size:
174.04 MB
Format:
Video Quicktime
Download

Collections

Masters Theses