Aerodynamic performance of Parastoo UAV

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the flow around Parastoo UAV's wing, with the aim of improving its aerodynamic performance. A major source of concern is the use of relatively large flaps in the original design. This unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operates at low Reynolds numbers of below 500,000 and was designed for short‐range reconnaissance.Design/methodology/approachA finite volume solver is utilized to investigate the flow over different wing designs to find a replacement for the current one. To check the accuracy of this numerical modeling, the authors first duplicate the conditions of available relevant experiments. The numerical results are in good agreement with the wind tunnel experiments. Here, the aerodynamic performances of Parastoo's wing at different flight conditions with and without the proposed modification are studied and compared.FindingsAs the original design of Parastoo uses relatively large flaps, it is found that the aerodynamic performance of Parastoo is significantly hampered due to their existence. The use of a new wing cross‐section can improve the aerodynamics efficiency of Parastoo. It is recommended that FX‐63137 airfoil is a more suitable cross section instead of Parastoo's original NACA‐63215 airfoil. It is shown that this change improves the aerodynamic performance of the UAV and with the use of smaller flaps (changing the flaperons to only ailerons), the existing payload weight can be increased by 90 per cent.Originality/valueThe issues discussed for this UAV may be of use for other small unmanned plane designers. The numerical data generated for this study are useful for other design teams, both as in direct uses of the data in their own designs and/or for the validation of their numerical methods before investigating other wing designs.