Ogle Models UCL UAV
The UCL team's unmanned aircraft model.
Ogle Models has partnered with a University College London (UCL) group of students to develop a 3D printed prototype which helped the team reach the final stages of an international aerospace competition.
Run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Challenge tasked the UCL students with designing, manufacturing and operating an unmanned aircraft capable of completing a range of humanitarian mission simulations.
The group developed a tailless, blended-wing body aircraft made from carbon-fibre reinforced polymer, but a model capable of enduring wind tunnel testing is expensive to produce, particularly if it boasts pressure tapping to sample the distribution of the air across the prototype. This is where Ogle came in.
“Following the wind tunnel testing, the results converged across a range of angles of attack and yaw positions. Pressure plots taken from the taps validated the aerodynamic properties of the design, which would not have been possible without Ogle’s expertise,” commented Sam Hiscox, team leader for the project. “With the computational fluid dynamics simulations validated, the team received their design report, for innovative use of materials and manufacturing techniques in creating a wind tunnel model.”
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Render of the aircraft prototype.
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Prototype printed in ClearVue resin to demo the pressure tapping pathways.
On Ogle’s recommendation, stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing was used to enable the incorporation of the pressure taps within the model. The accuracy of the technology meant the team could precisely negotiate the complex geometries, while 3D Systems’ ClearVue resin was harnessed so the pressure tapping pathways could be seen on the finished model.
“UCL is regarded as one of the best institutions in the country when it comes to training tomorrow’s mechanical engineers and we were only too happy to help when the team approached us,” said Matt White, Senior Sales Engineer at Ogle.
