DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF

ALBATROSS UAV USING

SOLAR ENERGY

A PROJECT REPORT
Submitted by

MANIKANDAN G

(922512101010)

NANDHAKUMAR R

(922512101015)

RUBACHANDRAN G

(922512101021)

SASIKUMAR N

(922512101022)

in partial fulfilment for the award of the degree

of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
in
AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

V.S.B.ENGINEERING COLLEGE, KARUR- 639 111.

ANNA UNIVERSITY::CHENNAI 600 025

APRIL 2016

ANNA UNIVERSITY::CHENNAI 600 025

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this project report DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF ALBATROSS

UAV USING SOLAR ENERGY is the bonafide work of G.MANIKANDAN
(922512101010), R.NANDHAKUMAR (922512101015), G.RUBACHANDRAN
(922512101021), and N.SASIKUMAR (922512101022) who carried out the project
work under my supervision.

............

................

SIGNATURE

SIGNATURE

Mr.P.RAJU M.E., MBA., MISTE.,

Mr.N.SENTHIL KUMAR M.E.,

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT

SUPERVISOR

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Department of Aeronautical Engineering

Department of Aeronautical Engineering

V.S.B. Engineering College

V.S.B. Engineering College

Karur- 639111.

Karur- 639111.

Submitted for the Project Viva-Voce examination held on

Internal Examiner

External Examiner
ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge with deep sense of gratitude to our chairman
Shri.V.S.BALSAMY B.Sc., B.L., V.S.B.Engineering College for providing us support
to do this project.
We express our heartfelt gratitude to Director Mr.K.SARAVANA KUMAR
M.Tech., (Ph.D)., and our Principal Dr.V.SHANMUGAVEL Ph.D for this kind
approval to take up the project. We express our sincere thanks to our Head of the
Department of Aeronautical Engineering Mr.P.RAJU M.E., MBA., MISTE., for his
encouragement.
We sincerely acknowledge him kind and useful help received from our guide
Mr.N.SENTHIL KUMAR M.E., Assistant Professor of Aeronautical Engineering
Department for his invaluable guidance and encouragement throughout the period of
this work.
We extend our heartfelt salutation to our beloved friends, Parents and Department
faculty who encouraged us throughout the course and gave their valuable support for the
successful completion of our project.

iii

ABSTRACT
Generally domain Aircraft uses conventional fuels. These fuels are under
extinction because of vulnerability in usage, the demand of fuels are increasing day by
day and consequently increasing the scarcity of those fuels. Also, nowadays the cost of
fuels are increasing at its peak. So the demand of non-exhaustible unlimited resources of
energy like natural resource such as solar, wind and water can be conventionally used as
a fuel resource with proper systematic utilization.

Bringing the solar energy into

aviation is the main domain of our project. In this project we are developing a
preliminary model of an aircraft running in the power backup of solar energy. We are
stimulating the concept on utilizing solar resource available to maximize the endurance
of our model aircraft. Approach on designing our model was based on the albatross
anatomy for maximum performance and also by using swept back wing instead of glider
in the solar powered aircraft we are indeed to reduce the aerodynamic drag during high
speeds.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER

TITLE

N0.

PAGE
NO.

ABSTRACT

iv

LIST OF FIGURES

vii

LIST OF TABLES

ix

LIST OF SYMBOLS

INTRODUCTION

1.1. BASIC AERODYNAMICS

1.2. SOLAR RADIATION

1.3. HISTORY OF SOLAR FLIGHT

1.3.1 Sunrise

1.3.2 Gossamer Penguin

1.3.3 Solar Challenger

1.3.4 Pathfinder

1.3.5 Pathfinder "plus"

1.3.6 Centurion

10

1.3.7 Helios

11

1.3.8 SOLONG

12

1.3.9 Solar Impulse

12

LITERATURE REVIEW

15

METHODOLOGY

19

3.1 PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

19

3.2 HOW SOLAR CELLS MAKE ELECTRICITY

20

3.3 SEMICONDUCTOR SOLAR CELLS

21

FABRICATION

23

4.1 MATERIALS SELECTION

4.1.1 Motor and Propellers

23

4.1.2 Servo

24

4.1.3 Electronic Speed Controller

25

4.1.4 Batteries

26

4.1.5 Transmitter and Receiver

27

4.1.6 Solar Cell

28

4.1.7 Depron Sheet

29

DESIGN CALCULATION

31

5.1 WEIGHT ESTIMATION

31

5.2 THRUST CALCULATION

32

5.3 DESIGN PARAMETERS

32

5.4 CALCULATION OF ENDURANCE

33

5.5 SOLAR CELL ON WING

34

5.6 SOLAR POWER CALCULATION

34

5.6.1 Specifications
6

23

34

UNMANNED PROTOTYPE DESIGN

35

6.1 WING DESIGN

35

6.1.1 Taper Ratio

36

6.1.2 Aspect Ratio

37

6.2 AIRFOIL SELECTION

37

6.3 HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL STABILIZER

38

6.4 FUSELAGE AND OTHER PARAMETERS

38

6.5 ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS SPECIFICATION

39

6.6 DESIGN OF UAV

41

CONCLUSION

44

REFERENCE

45

vi

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

Description

No.

Page
No.

1.1

Effect of relative wind in leading edge of wing.

1.2

Component of Forces and Moments

1.3

Sunrise II, 1975

1.4

Gossamer Penguin, 1980

1.5

Solar Challenger (1981)

1.6

Pathfinder, 1996

1.7

Centurion (1997-1999)

10

1.8

Helios, 1999-2003

11

1.9

SOLONG by Alan Cocconi.

12

1.10

Solar impulse II, 2014

13

3.1

Schematic representation of power transfer

19

3.2

Principle of solar cell (a) cell in valence bond (b) in excited state

21

4.1

Brushless outrunner motor

23

4.2

Electrical servo motor

24

4.3

Electronic speed controller

25

4.4

Li-po 5000mah battery

26

4.5

Transmitter and Receiver

27

4.6

Polycrystalline solar cell

29
vii

4.7

Flat bottom wing using depron sheet

30

Load distributions, root bending moment, and span efficiency for

6.1

three taper ratios

36

6.2

Design of fuselage, horizontal and vertical stabilizer

39

6.3

Structure of UAV

41

6.4

Gluing the control surfaces

41

6.5

Soldering solar cells

42

6.6

Placing solar cell on wings

42

6.7

Design of our UAV

43

viii

LIST OF TABLES
Table

Description

No.

Page
No.

6.1

Design comparison between Albatross and UAV

35

6.2

Aerfoil selection

38

ix

LIST OF SYMBOLS
A

Area

Ah

Ampere hour

Amp

Ampere

AR

Aspect ratio

angle of attack

Span

chord length

CD

Drag coefficient

CL

Lift coefficient

cm

centimetre

Croot

Root chord length

Ctip

Tip chord length

ft.

Feet

gm

Gram

hr

Hours

In

inch

Joules

kg/m

kilogram per cubic metre

kmph

kilometre per hour

kV

kilovolt

Lift

(L/D)

Lift-to-drag ratio

Metre

min

minute

mm

milli metre

mAh

milli Ampere hour

x

oz

Ounces

rpm

Revolution per minute

Wing Area

Sq.

Square

Taper ratio,

Thrust

Volt

Watt

W/m2

Watts per square metre

xi