A flight-testing campaign to examine inflight icing characteristics and its effects on the flight performance of an Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle
A flight-testing campaign to examine inflight icing characteristics and its effects on the flight performance of an Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle
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一项飞行测试活动，旨在检查飞行中结冰特性及其对无人机飞行性能的影响
DOI：
10.1016/j.coldregions.2023.103775
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发表时间：
2023
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
Hu, Hui
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Han, Nianhong;Siddique, M.A.;Zhang, Zichen;Tian, Linchuan;Hu, Haiyang;Hu, Hui
为研究固定翼无人机飞行结冰特性及其对飞行性能的影响，进行了飞行试验。当无人机被部署为在现实的大气结冰条件下沿着预先计划的飞行轨迹自主飞行时，机载安装了一套航空电子设备/传感器来监测无人机飞行参数（例如，UAV飞行速度、飞行高度和功耗）和环境条件（例如，空速、环境温度和相对湿度）。观察到几乎所有暴露的机身表面上都积累了大量的冰结构（例如，机翼、机身、安定面、皮托管和螺旋桨），因为无人机完成飞行使命时有明显的空中结冰。虽然无人机机翼和稳定器上的积冰被发现通过降低升力而增加阻力来降低其空气动力性能，但皮托管上的冰层堵塞了压力孔，导致结冰的皮托管的空速读数错误。研究发现，螺旋桨叶片结冰会显著降低螺旋桨的性能，使无人机完成相同飞行使命的功率消耗比无冰条件下增加80%以上。飞行中结冰会引起结构振动，对无人机飞行稳定性造成极大挑战，严重威胁飞行安全。
A flight-testing campaign was conducted to examine in-flight icing characteristics and its effects on the flight performance of a fixed-wing Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle (UAV). While the UAV was deployed to fly autonomously along a pre-planned flight trajectory under a realistic, atmospheric icing condition, a suite of avionics/sensors was installed onboard to monitor both UAV flight parameters (e.g., UAV flying speed, flight altitude, and power consumption) and the environmental conditions (e.g., airspeed, ambient temperature, and relative humidity) along the flying path. Substantial ice structures were observed to accumulate on nearly all exposed airframe surfaces (e.g., wings, fuselage, stabilizers, Pitot probe and propeller) as the UAV finished the flight mission with evident inflight icing. While the ice accretion on the UAV wings and stabilizers were found to degrade their aerodynamic performances by decreasing lift while increasing drag, the ice layer accreted on the Pitot probe blocked the pressure holes, leading to false airspeed readings from the iced Pitot probe. The ice accretion on the rotating UAV propeller blades was found to degrade the propeller perfomance dramatically, resulting in over 80% more power consumption for the UAV to finish the same flight mission, in comparison to that under a non-icing condition. Inflight icing was also found to provoke significant structural vibrations, causing great challenges to UAV flight stability and imposing serious threats to the flight safety.