Modeling Unsteady Aerodynamics and Predicting Trajectories for Small UAV in Complex Airwake Environments

A new modeling and simulation approach for uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) for shipboard operations, as well as other complex airwake environments, is introduced. The approach couples an aerodynamic modeling framework, expanded with a closed-loop flight controller, with a flight dynamics solver to assess UAV responses in highly complex airwakes. Using high-fidelity wall-modeled large eddy simulation airwakes, the approach has been evaluated for two traditional naval approaches on a generic destroyer. As part of this effort, a new metric to ensure accurate flight modeling is introduced, along with proposed UAV safety mapping. These predictions can support mission planning by evaluating unique prescribed approaches for nontraditional small UAV, and can aid in early controller design by highlighting specific failure modes based on the airwake environment.