Modelling and Aerodynamic Performance of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Wing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63746/njtd.v22i4.3663Keywords:
Aerodynamics, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Drag coefficient, Lift coefficient, Unmanned Aerial VehicleAbstract
Over the decades, the number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has increased due to their versatile applications. The aerofoil-formed wing is the primary lift-generating component of a fixed-wing aircraft. Incorporating a hybrid wing design and combining two different aerofoils can enhance aerodynamic performance. The Ichoku-18 (IU-18) UAV features such a configuration, using the NACA2415 aerofoil at the root and the SD7032 at the tip, along with geometric twist. This study developed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of an IU-18 UAV’s wing and analyse its aerodynamic performance. The lift and drag coefficients, pressure distributions, and aerodynamic efficiency using realisable k-? and SST k-? turbulence models at angles of attack (AoA) of 0°-24° in four increments were investigated. At 0° AoA, the minimum drags coefficients predicted by the SST k-? and realisable k-? models were 0.015 and 0.016, respectively, within expected ranges. Furthermore, all models identified 16° as the critical AoA. As AoA increased, pressure on the wing increased while air velocity decreased, consistent with Bernoulli’s principle, influencing lift and drag generation. Overall, this study enhances the understanding of the IU-18 UAV wing’s aerodynamic behaviour and evaluates the accuracy of selected turbulence models under cruise conditions.
References
Aftab, S.M.A., Rafie, A.S.M., Abdul Razak, N.A., Ahmad, K.A., (2016). Turbulence Model Selection for Low Reynolds Number Flows. PLoS ONE 11, 1–15.
Ali, I., Hussain, T., Unar, I.N., Kumar, L., Ahad, I.U., (2024). Turbulence model study for aerodynamic analysis of the leading edge tubercle wing for low Reynolds number flows. Heliyon 10.
Ananda, G.K., Sukumar, P.P., Selig, M.S., (2015). Measured aerodynamic characteristics of wings at low Reynolds numbers. Aerospace Science and Technology 42, 392–406.
Anderson, J.D., (2011). Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, Sixth. ed. McGraw-Hill Education, New York.
ANSYS Inc, (2013). ANSYS Fluent Theory Guide.
Arunkumar, K., Chinthamani, P., Nema, D., Nandhini, R., P, N.S., (2018). Performance Analysis of Winglet Using CFD. In: International Conference on Aeronautics, Astronautics and Aviation (ICAAA). pp. 151–157.
Bardera, R., Rodríguez-Sevillano, Á.A., Barroso-Barderas, E., Matías-García, J.C., (2024). CFD study of the effect of leading-edge tubercles on the aerodynamic characteristics of a small UAV based on eppler 186 airfoils. Results in Engineering 23.
Cakir, M., (2012). CFD Study on Aerodynamic Effects of a Rear Wing/Spoiler on a Passenger Vehicle. Santa Clara University, California.
Cao, H., (2011). Aerodynamics Analysis of Small Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Blades by Using 2D and 3D CFD Modelling. University of the Central Lancashire.
Eftekhari, S., Al-obaidi, A.S.M., Mahdi Al-Obaidi, A.S., (2019). Investigation of a NACA0012 Finite Wing Aerodynamics at Low Reynold’s Numbers and 0° to 90° Angle of Attack. J Aerosp Technol Manag 11: e1519, 1–11.
Hamza, A., (2020). Flight Performance of ICHOKU-18 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Air Force Insitute of Technology, Kaduna.
Hasan, M., Redonnet, S., Zhongmin, D., (2025). Aerodynamic optimization of aircraft wings using machine learning. Advances in Engineering Software 200, 103801.
?nan, A.T., Ceylan, M., (2024). Aerodynamic Analysis of Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Moving in Swarm. Applied Sciences 14.
Iqbal, Z., Al-faruk, A., Islam, A., (2025). Experimental Analysis of Aerodynamic Characteristics of NACA 0012 Wing Model with Multiple Winglets. Journal of Engineering Advancements 06, 22–30.
Isah, A., Abdulazeez, M.U., Aliyu, M., Yahuza, I., (2022). Study of Aerodynamic Performance of Rear Trunk Lip Spoiler on a Passenger Car. FUW Trends in Science & Technology Journal 7, 1017–1022.
Isah, A., Abdulazeez, M.U., Aliyu, M., Yahuza, I., (2025). Investigating the Effect of a Passenger Vehicle Front Profile on Aerodynamic Performance. Journal of Sustainable Engineering and Technology 1, 215–224.
Ismail, N.A., Usman, K.M., Balogun, M.B., Abdullahi, M., Faru, F.T., Ibrahim, I.U., (2020). Effect of Angle of Attack on Lift, Drag, Pitching Moment and Pressure Distribution of NACA 4415 Wing Effect. Journal Of Science Technology and Education 8, 31–44.
Isah, A., Rahim, A., Talib, A., Faisal, M., Hamid, A., Gires, E., Mat, S., (2025). Conceptual Design of Hydrogen Fuel Cell-Powered Aircraft: A Review. Journal of Aeronautics, Astronautics and Aviation 57, 531–556.
Jemitola, P.O., Abbe, G.E., (2018). Medium Altitude Long Endurance Surveillance Aircraft IU-18 Project Specification.
John, J.B., Russell, M.C., (2014). Aerodynamics for Engineers, Sixth Edit. ed. Pearson Education Limited, United Kingdom.
Kandil, M.A.F., Elnady, A.O., (2017). Performance of GOE-387 Airfoil Using CFD. International Journal of Aerospace Sciences 5, 1–7.
Karkoulias, D.G., Tzoganis, E.D., Panagiotopoulos, A.G., Acheimastos, S.-G.D., Margaris, D.P., (2022). Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of Wing in Air Flow and Air–Solid Flow Using Three Different Meshing Techniques and Comparison with Experimental Results in Wind Tunnel. Computation 10, 34.
Khuntia, S.K., Ahuja, A.S., Base, N., (2018). Optimal Design and CFD Analysis of Wing of a Small-Scale UAV to Obtain Maximum Efficiency. International Journal of Computer Application 1, 148–164.
Kulshreshtha, A., Gupta, S.K., Singhal, P., (2020). FEM/CFD analysis of wings at different angle of attack. Materials Today: Proceedings 26, 1638–1643.
Lawal, M.S., Thomas, S., Udeagulu, C., Jemitola, P.O., (2015). Prediction of Aerodynamic Paramaters and Pressure Distribition of the Wing of Gulma UAV. In: 3rd International Symposium on Engineering and Natural Science (ISEAN). Beijing.
Lei, Y., An, X., Pan, Y., Zhou, Y., Chen, Q., (2024). Prediction of pressure distribution and aerodynamic coefficients for a variable-sweep wing. Aerospace Science and Technology 155, 109706.
Mahmud, S., Mohamad, W., (2013). Introduction to ANSYS Workbench.
Manikantissar, Ankur, G., (2017). CFD Analysis of Conceptual Aircraft Body. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) 4, 217–222.
Merryisha, S., Rajendran, P., (2019). Experimental and CFD Analysis of Surface Modifiers on Aircraft Wing: A Review. CFD Letters 11, 46–56.
Meyers, L.M., (2018). Analysis of Lift and Drag Forces on the Wing of the Underwater Glider. Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
Mishra, P., Aharwal, K.R., (2018). A review on selection of turbulence model for CFD analysis of air flow within a cold storage. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 402.
Mousa, N.A., Attia, O.H., Mahmood, H.A., Adam, N.M., (2022). Optimization Efficiency of the Aircraft Wing of Cessna 172 Skyhawk by Absorbent Adverse Pressure Using Tangential Suction Slot Without Vacuum Device. Mathematical Modelling of Engineering Problems 9, 731–738.
Narendiranath, B.T., Parmenshwar, P., Beladiya, A., Bhabhra, A., (2017). CFD Analysis and Comparison using Ansys and Star-CCM+ Of Model Aerofoil Selig 1223. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET) 8, 312–318.
Nigam, P.K., Tenguria, N., Pradhan, M.K., (2017). Analysis of horizontal axis wind turbine blade using CFD. International Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology 9, 46–60.
Pranto, M.R.I., Inam, M.I., (2020). Numerical Analysis of the Aerodynamic Characteristics of NACA-4312 Airfoil. Journal of Engineering Advancements 01, 29–36.
Roy, A., Mallik, A.K., Sarma, T.P., (2018). A Study of Model Separation Flow Behavior at High Angles of Attack Aerodynamics. Journal of Applied Computational Mechanics 4, 318–330.
Siddiqi, Z., Lee, J.W., (2019). A computational fluid dynamics investigation of subsonic wing designs for unmanned aerial vehicle application. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering 233, 5543–5552.
Triet, N.M., Viet, N.N., Thang, P.M., (2015). Aerodynamic Analysis of Aircraft Wing. VNU Journal of Science: Mathematics – Physics 31, 68–75.
Utomo, M.S. T.S., Yohana, E., Mahendra, C., Utama, I.Y., (2024). Analysis of blended winglet parameters on the aerodynamic characteristics of NXXX aircraft using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Results in Engineering 24, 102901.
Yuichi, K., Ryo, I., Midori, M., Keisuke, S., (2020). Numerical Study of Flowfield Around a Multislotted High-Lift Wing. Journal of Aircraft 1–7.
Zharif, M., Taib, I., Imran, M.N., Alif, N.A., Kamilia, N., (2024). Analysis of Airflow Characteristics of Different Models of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Semarak Journal of Thermal-Fluid Engineering 1, 9–15.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Nigerian Journal of Technological Development
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
In accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976, which became effective January 1, 1978, the following statement signed by each author must accompany the manuscript submitted: "I, the undersigned author, transfer all copyright ownership of the manuscript referenced above to the Nigerian Journal of Technological Development, in the event the work is published. I warrant that the article is original, does not infringe upon any copyright or other proprietary right of any third party, is not under consideration by another journal, and has not been published previously. I have reviewed and approved the submitted version of the manuscript and agree to its publication in the Nigerian Journal of Technological Development." A copyright transfer form can be downloaded from the NJTD Website (http://njtd.com.ng/index.php/njtd). Author(s) will be consulted, whenever possible, regarding republication of material. All authors must have access to the data presented, and the authors and sponsor (if applicable) must agree to share original data with the editor if requested.
