Design and Analysis of UAV Fuselage

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to design and analyze a UAV fuselage. The UAV considered in this paper is designed for short-term use and light-weight with mass carrying capacity of 2kg. Firstly, the shape is considered for aerodynamics. Then, the internal system installation, cargo positioning and fuselage structure are designed. Finite element analysis is used for the stress analysis under the landing condition of static model with 3.5g acceleration. The short-term use is specified to be 20 life cycles and the model is verified by the dynamic drop test. The result from finite element analysis shows that the maximum stress is less than the material’s strength with safety factor of 1.1. From the dynamic drop test, the fuselage can safely support the structure under the required life cycles. Therefore, it can be concluded that UAV fuselage can achieve the requirements.