Experimental Study of Aerodynamics for Micro Air Vehicle Using Small Wind Tunnel

This paper presents the preliminary experimental investigation into low Reynolds number aerodynamics (i.e., Re is approximately 200,000) for Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) with a wingspan of 10-cm using an open-return low-speed wind tunnel facility. The purpose of the test was to collect a variety of data to aid in the study of the dynamics and control properties of the MAV. The basic governing equation to analyze the airfoil performance and the fabrication of the test specimen were briefly introduced firstly. The apparatus and the procedure used in the wind tunnel experiment were then addressed in detail. Both lift and drag of the 10-cm MAV model were investigated by the following settings: the angle of attack is set to be 0°, 5°, 10°, 15°, respectively; the chord Reynolds number is set to be within 10,000-200,000. The preliminary effect of the different angle of attack on the lift and drag of the MAV was examined.