Vehicular Aerodynamics Wind Tunnel Testing of Unmanned Aerial Multirotor Vehicles and Wall Interference Corrections

Unmanned multirotor aerial vehicles, known commonly as drones, have become a popular form of flying system due to the versatility of their possible applications. In order to model the aerodynamics of manoeuvring multirotor vehicles, the aerodynamics of the rotors and the vehicle will be modelled separately. A DJI Matrice 210 RTK model quadcopter was reproduced using 3D printed parts and wood. The model components include the main body, four arms, two landing gear or legs, a battery, camera and gimbal, and the RTK GPS antennae, as well as accessories including a backup battery, backup antenna, and computer. Nine configurations of a combination of these components were tested in a wind tunnel at two given wind tunnel velocities and a sweep of angles of attack, sideslip angles, and roll angles. The aerodynamic forces and moments acting on the vehicle body were measured, and after accounting for tare forces and base drag, the data was corrected to account for wall and blockage effects from the wind tunnel’s closed test section. The intention of this project is to obtain wind tunnel testing results of the quadcopter model body and to setup a methodology to apply wall interference corrections. This project will support rotor aerodynamics and flight dynamics testing of the DJI Matrice 210 RTK currently in progress, which intend to improve control laws of unmanned multirotor aerial vehicles.