CONSTRAINED VOLUME PACKING OF DEPLOYABLE WINGS FOR UNMANNED AIRCRAFT

Author

Turner John Harris, University of KentuckyFollow

Date Available

6-15-2011

Year of Publication

2011

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME)

Document Type

Thesis

College

Engineering

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Suzanne Weaver Smith

Abstract

UAVs are becoming an accepted tool for sensing. The benefits of deployable wings allow smaller transportation enclosures such as soldier back packs up to large rocket launched extraterrestrial UAVs. The packing of soft inflatable wings and Hybrid inflatable with rigid section wings is being studied at the University of Kentucky. Rigid wings are volume limited while inflatable wings are mass limited. The expected optimal wing design is a hybrid approach. Previous wing designs have been packed into different configurations in an attempt to determine the optimal stowed configurations. A comparison of rigid, hybrid, and inflatable wings will be presented. Also a method for simulating optimally packed wings with respect to geometric constraints will be presented. A code has been written to study soft wing packing and verified the soft wing packing results. This code can be used during initial wing design to help predict wing size and packing configurations. In this thesis, an over view of the packing configurations as well as packing observations will be covered such , packing inefficiencies, wing mounting limits, long term storage, and scaling of packing.

Recommended Citation

Harris, Turner John, "CONSTRAINED VOLUME PACKING OF DEPLOYABLE WINGS FOR UNMANNED AIRCRAFT" (2011). University of Kentucky Master's Theses. 129.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_theses/129