Design and Analysis of a Small-Scale Solar Powered UAV

The current paper aims to analyze the design and the efficiency of a small scale solar powered UAV. The selection of solar cells is performed in view of the current solar cell technologies. The aerodynamic analysis and the initial design of a small scaled UAV wing that uses flexible solar cells are performed. Solar-array area on the upper surface of the wing and the sunlight direction seen by these arrays during the flight at different time of the day are the main parameters for the energy storage system in order to obtain effective solar energy for the flight. The solar irradiance at Muscat, Oman is taken into consideration. The power management during the daytime and battery recharge effectiveness during the night flight is investigated. Small-scale UAV is considered to cruise at sea-level with 25 m/s cruise velocity corresponding to a Reynolds number of 6.16 × 105. Five different low Reynolds number airfoils are considered, and NACA6409 is selected as the airfoil of the designed wing. The power obtained from solar cell arrays mounted on the upper side wing are calculated on 21 June at the sea level condition considering latitude and longitude of Muscat, Oman.