Experimental Analysis on Solar Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

In this project by analyzing different airfoils the suitable airfoil which has less camber for solar cell placement was chosen by XFLR5 analysis. With this airfoil the wing span and chord was decided according to the battery requirement. Then energy and power analysis was done theoretically to check the design feasibility which gives a basic foundation in order to design a solar-powered UAV. Then the integration of solar cells on to the wing was performed by considering various factors such as the deflection stability and circuit connectivity. Then the solar wing was tested and from the solar cells more than the required power for the level flight has been obtained which shows that with this power the plane can fly with only solar energy continuously for more than 6 hours. And for the designed prototype the thermodynamic analysis of solar PV cells was performed taking into account the effect of temperature along with the wind. Then finally the exergy analysis has been done in order to provide a physical basis for understanding refining and predicting the variations in solar PV behavior.