Development of Foldable Wing Structures for Micro Air Vehicles

Vijayakumar  Kolandapaiyan; L. V.  Muralikrishna Reddy; M.  Sakthivel

doi:10.6180/jase.201806_21(2).0013

Development of Foldable Wing Structures for Micro Air Vehicles

Vijayakumar Kolandapaiyan This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.¹, L. V. Muralikrishna Reddy² and M. Sakthivel³

¹National Design and Research Forum, The Institution of Engineers, India
²Foundation for Educational Excellence (FEE)
³Anna University

Received: September 12, 2017
Accepted: January 17, 2018
Publication Date: June 1, 2018

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.201806_21(2).0013

ABSTRACT

The enabling technologies for the development of micro air vehicles (MAV) are matured and realistic in the application arena. The foldable MAV is a family of MAV, which are gaining interest due to its unique storing capability in field of operation. The recent developments in foldable wing MAV are enhancing wing design with foldability characteristics including wing profile, material selection and canister capability. The overall objective of this work is to design and develop a mission based foldable wing MAV, which can be packed in minimal volume, unpacked in minimum time and deployed in time-critical situations. In this paper, the main objective is to show the foldable wing capability with the help of canister design. It also discusses the foldable wing profiles, identification of suitable composite materials, orientation, 3D printing and component selection. To consider the suitable wing shape, rectangular and taper wing has been taken. The structural stress analysis of these wing configurations for CFRP and GFRP materials have been analyzed and compared. Analysis of these wing has variation in deformation, strain and factor of safety. Besides, foldable wings and canister design are fabricated. The development and widespread use of MAV in the real life environment have constraint and limitations with respect to handling the vehicle because of its size of the wing and sensitive components attached to it. Foldable wing structures and storage capability in canisterisoneofthealternativesandhascreatedlotsofinterestamongtheMAVdevelopmentactivity.

Keywords: Wing Profile, Stress Analysis, Composite Materials, Canister Design, 3D Printing

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