Lightweight Design of V-tail for Fixed-wing UAV Based on Response Surface Methodology
Due to its excellent aerodynamic performance and relatively light weight,the V-tail has a wide range of applications in high aspect ratio and long endurance integrated unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV).Lightweight design is the main way to improve the endurance of unmanned aerial vehicles.Based on response surface methodology,the wingspan length,number of ribs,and skin thick-ness of the designed V-tail were optimized,resulting in a new V-tail configuration.Through strength verification,modal analysis,and external flow field simulation analysis,the results show that the newly obtained V-shaped tail can maintain relatively stable aerodynamic performance while meeting the requirements of strength and structural dynamic characteristics,and the structural quality is reduced by 22.88%compared to before optimization.Finally,the lightweight V-tail design was successfully prototyped using fused deposition modeling(FDM)additive manufacturing technology,and the experimental results confirmed a weight reduction consistent with the sim-ulation findings,validating the feasibility of the optimization approach.
V-tailresponse surface optimizationexternal flow field simulationfinite element analysis(FEA)optimization