An Experimental Apparatus for Icing Tests of Low Altitude Hovering Drones
The icing facilities of the Anti-Icing Materials International Laboratory AMIL have been adapted to reproduce icing conditions on a Bell APT70 drone rotor, typical of small-to-medium UAV models. As part of an extensive icing test campaign, this paper presents the design and preliminary testing of th...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Drones |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/6/3/68 |
| _version_ | 1827649345251442688 |
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| author | Eric Villeneuve Abdallah Samad Christophe Volat Mathieu Béland Maxime Lapalme |
| author_facet | Eric Villeneuve Abdallah Samad Christophe Volat Mathieu Béland Maxime Lapalme |
| author_sort | Eric Villeneuve |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The icing facilities of the Anti-Icing Materials International Laboratory AMIL have been adapted to reproduce icing conditions on a Bell APT70 drone rotor, typical of small-to-medium UAV models. As part of an extensive icing test campaign, this paper presents the design and preliminary testing of the experimental setup and representative icing conditions calibration in the laboratory’s cold chamber. The drone rotor used has four blades with a diameter of 0.66 m and a maximum tip speed of 208 m/s. For the icing conditions, freezing rain and freezing drizzle were selected. A Liquid Water Content (<i>LWC</i>) calculation methodology for a rotor in hover was developed, and procedures to determine experimental <i>LWC</i> in the facility are presented in this paper. For the test setup, the cold chamber test section was adapted to fit the rotor and to control its ground clearance. Testing was aimed at studying the effect of rotor height h on aerodynamic performance, both with and without icing conditions. Results show no significant effect on the ground effect between h = 2 m and h = 4 m in dry runs, while the icing behavior can be largely influenced for certain conditions by the proximity of the precipitation source, which depend on the height of the rotor in these experiments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T19:55:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d7a4659ad89d44a3b95cf78cdfe571b6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2504-446X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T19:55:30Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Drones |
| spelling | doaj.art-d7a4659ad89d44a3b95cf78cdfe571b62023-11-24T00:58:12ZengMDPI AGDrones2504-446X2022-03-01636810.3390/drones6030068An Experimental Apparatus for Icing Tests of Low Altitude Hovering DronesEric Villeneuve0Abdallah Samad1Christophe Volat2Mathieu Béland3Maxime Lapalme4Department of Applied Sciences, University of Québec in Chicoutimi, 555 Boulevard de l’Université, Chicoutimi, QC G7H 2B1, CanadaDepartment of Applied Sciences, University of Québec in Chicoutimi, 555 Boulevard de l’Université, Chicoutimi, QC G7H 2B1, CanadaDepartment of Applied Sciences, University of Québec in Chicoutimi, 555 Boulevard de l’Université, Chicoutimi, QC G7H 2B1, CanadaBell Textron Canada Limited, 12 800 rue de l’Avenir, Mirabel, QC J7J 1R4, CanadaBell Textron Canada Limited, 12 800 rue de l’Avenir, Mirabel, QC J7J 1R4, CanadaThe icing facilities of the Anti-Icing Materials International Laboratory AMIL have been adapted to reproduce icing conditions on a Bell APT70 drone rotor, typical of small-to-medium UAV models. As part of an extensive icing test campaign, this paper presents the design and preliminary testing of the experimental setup and representative icing conditions calibration in the laboratory’s cold chamber. The drone rotor used has four blades with a diameter of 0.66 m and a maximum tip speed of 208 m/s. For the icing conditions, freezing rain and freezing drizzle were selected. A Liquid Water Content (<i>LWC</i>) calculation methodology for a rotor in hover was developed, and procedures to determine experimental <i>LWC</i> in the facility are presented in this paper. For the test setup, the cold chamber test section was adapted to fit the rotor and to control its ground clearance. Testing was aimed at studying the effect of rotor height h on aerodynamic performance, both with and without icing conditions. Results show no significant effect on the ground effect between h = 2 m and h = 4 m in dry runs, while the icing behavior can be largely influenced for certain conditions by the proximity of the precipitation source, which depend on the height of the rotor in these experiments.https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/6/3/68aerospaceicingdronesUAVexperimental setupcold room |
| spellingShingle | Eric Villeneuve Abdallah Samad Christophe Volat Mathieu Béland Maxime Lapalme An Experimental Apparatus for Icing Tests of Low Altitude Hovering Drones Drones aerospace icing drones UAV experimental setup cold room |
| title | An Experimental Apparatus for Icing Tests of Low Altitude Hovering Drones |
| title_full | An Experimental Apparatus for Icing Tests of Low Altitude Hovering Drones |
| title_fullStr | An Experimental Apparatus for Icing Tests of Low Altitude Hovering Drones |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Experimental Apparatus for Icing Tests of Low Altitude Hovering Drones |
| title_short | An Experimental Apparatus for Icing Tests of Low Altitude Hovering Drones |
| title_sort | experimental apparatus for icing tests of low altitude hovering drones |
| topic | aerospace icing drones UAV experimental setup cold room |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/6/3/68 |
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