Experimental study of microburst effects on airfoil for micro/unmanned aerial vehicle applications

Abstract

A microburst is naturally an intense small-scale downdraft produced by a terrific thunderstorm or rain shower. The effect of a microburst is extremely uncertain for an aircraft, particularly during take-off and landing. In this research work, wind tunnel experiments were conducted at the chord based Reynolds number of Rec = 2 X 105 to study the aerodynamic characteristics over an designed airfoil under the influences of ample rainfall and microburst situations. From the experimental results, the recorded maximum lift coefficient of 2.46 and 1.15 for both no-rain and rainfall conditions [liquid water content (LWC) = 5.33 g/m3] respectively. The coefficient of lift decreases 53.25%, and coefficient of drag increases 57.26% under the influence of rainfall condition (LWC = 5.33 g/m3) effect at 16° angle of attack. Furthermore, the coefficient of lift decreased 57.62% under the influence of microburst effect at 12° angle of attack. This results will be useful for MAV/UAV design engineers and for training pilots to control the flight at both heavy rainfall, and microburst situations.