Solar unmanned aerial vehicle design and production

This thesis specifies the requirements, design methods and material selection of a solar powered unmanned aircraft that designed for specific mission. The mission of this UAV defined as observation with payload of at least 500 g. The UAV flies 24 hours long to conduct observation mission continuously. Flight mission includes four legs: takeoff-climb leg, level flight leg, glide-climb leg and final glide. Solar powered UAV is propelled by the power generated by PV cells during daytime at the same time excess generated electric energy is delivered to Li-Ion batteries. After the day flight, solar powered UAV change its flight regime and it starts to use the power deposited by Li-Ion batteries. During night flight, UAV has also glide-climb pattern to reduce power that consumed by propulsion system. The design phase consists of three main parts as; conceptual, preliminary and detailed design. Firstly, mission requirements and design requirements described in conceptual design. Also, configuration selections were completed according to design criterias to provide most suitable design that provides maximum efficiency. In the preliminary design phase, aircraft starts to be formed basic sizing of aircraft and some weight estimations. Following stages, aerodynamic design is completed and analysis is conducted to meet mission requirements which needs to long hour flight strictly. After the power calculations, selection of components such as, motor and propeller, ESC, battery, MPPT and solar cells, were made. Aircraft dimensions were determined after calculations and performance analysis. Solar energy calculations were made for selected mission location and outputs of these calculations were compared to aircraft performance requirements. In the detailed design process, computer modelling of every components were made and proper layout was prepared. Main components detail design and material selection were maden to provide strength that is required to loads during flight. All processes were completed successfully to achieve requirements of solar powered long endurance mission.