With the reduction of rotor diameter and motor size, the hovering performance measurement becomes a challenge for rotary wing Nano Air Vehicles (NAVs). Conventional test benches for Micro Aerial Vehicles fail to measure some characteristics of Nano Air Vehicles. In this paper, five test benches with highly sensitive mechanisms were successively designed in order to measure the thrust and torque of nano-rotors simultaneously and respond to the change of variables rapidly with sufficient accuracy. A commercial micro brushless motor and a micro rotor were studied experimentally and computationally at a low Reynolds range from 4,000 to 19,000. Computational and experimental comparisons were carried out and the performance of the test benches was discussed. The analysis suggests that the thrust coefficients measured by each test bench vary little from each other, while the power coefficients present significant differences. Then the hovering performance of the micro rotor and power efficiency of the motor were studied. Degradation of motor efficiency and rotor figure of merit are observed with size reduction associated with NAV applications.
Design of Test Benches for the Hovering Performance of Nano-Rotors
International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles ; 2 , 1 ; 17-32
2010-03-01
16 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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