Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol.

225 (2012) pp 305-309

Online available since 2012/Nov/29 at www.scientific.net
© (2012) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.225.305

Design and Analysis of UAV Fuselage

Thanyarat Singhanart1,a, Chartchai Srimontok2,b, Natnapat Pisitpan3,c,

Satid Chitimaworaphan4,d and Wutthikorn Mongkhonchaiwiwat5,e
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University,
Phaya Thai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, THAILAND
2,3,4,5
Aerospace Engineering Program, International School of Engineering,
Chulalongkorn University, Phaya Thai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, THAILAND
a
[email protected], b,c,d,[email protected]

Keywords: UAV, fuselage design, dynamic drop test

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.

Introduction
Fuselage is one of the main components of aircrafts. It protects the payloads and the control
systems that are stored inside. The fuselage supports wing load, tail load, power plant load and the
load due to the weight of the payload and the control system. However, too much structure
enforcement will result in more weight, which in conflict with aircraft performance. As the result, the
trade off should be made wisely. The most common fuselage structures are space frame or
monocoque. The space frame fuselage, chosen in this paper, is a welded truss with engine mount,
connecting system for the wing, and payload supporting plate, etc.
To design a fuselage of aircraft, designers and engineers have many constraints such as customer’s
requirement, aircraft loads, volume considerations, aerodynamic consideration, stability and
materials selection [1, 2]. According to a research about structural optimization of the fuselage by
Kourloufas [3], the fuselage conceptual design process is as follows (1) choose an aerodynamically
smooth shape, (2) provide space for position internal system and cargo, (3) make arrangements for
undercarriage placement, (4) position frame, and (5) consider accessibility for tooling and
maintainability – cutouts. In preliminary stage, the design of a fuselage structure involves two steps
which are solving the stress distribution under all loading conditions and checking whether the
structure can sustain these stresses [4]. Finite element analysis is a tool that helps engineers in stress
analysis. Computer aided design software is used to model the fuselage structure and the finite
element analysis is used to determine the maximum stress occurred in the structure. Dynamic drop
test is used to simulate the impact condition that the aircraft might experience and can be used to
verify the result from the analysis. The drop height for the dynamic drop test is affected by the vertical
velocity of the aircraft before landing.
This paper is focusing on the designing of the unmanned aircraft, UAV, for short-term use at the
2kg payload. The fuselage has to be light and strong. Therefore, the design and analysis of space
frame fuselage is proposed and verified by the dynamic drop test under the landing load situation.

All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP,
www.ttp.net. (ID: 137.122.8.73, University of Ottawa, (eBOOK+Periodicals), Ottawa, Canada-23/11/14,16:55:15)
306 AEROTECH IV

Conceptual Design
The UAV is designed with the requirements of (1) the aircraft should be low wing mounted, (2) the
tail unit is of conventional style, (3) the 2kg of eight aluminum blocks or a 2kg water tank must be
stored inside the fuselage, and (4) the single motor is mounted at the front of the aircraft.
Loads and Length of UAV. The designed UAV fuselage can sustains the payload of 2kg mass. The
other loads on UAV are shown in Table 1. These loads are applied as shown in Fig. 1. The overall
length of the UAV is determined from the balance of moment about aerodynamic center (a.c).

Table 1: Loads on UAV

Component Motor Nose Wing and Servo Battery Estimated Tail unit
landing Main landing Fuselage
gear gear
Mass [grams] 500 100 800 50 500 1000 100

Fig. 1 Positioning of payloads and other loads on UAV

Length of the tail arm is chosen by comparing the ratio between wing area and length of the tail arm
with the previously designed aircrafts. Finally, the length of the tail arm is decided to be 60cm. The
position of the nose landing gear is assumed to be 10cm after the nose and the center of gravity is
assumed to be at the middle.
By taking moment about the aerodynamic center, the x value as shown in Fig. 1 is determined to be
47.9cm. Therefore, the total length is approximately calculated to be 110cm.
Material Selection. The use of laminate of lite plywood covering with one or two woven fiberglass
layers (Fig. 2) is used in this UAV fuselage design to make a lightweight frame. The plywood and the
woven fiberglass layer are considered to be isotropic on its plane due to the same properties in each
direction [5]. The tensile tests were performed on the three specimens (a) plywood only, (b) plywood
with one fiberglass layer, and (c) plywood with two fiberglass layers as shown in Table 2. It found that
the Young’s moduli are almost the same while the strength of the laminate are increased with the
increased number of fiberglass layer. The Young’s modulus of plywood with one fiberglass layer was
lower than others due to the excessive epoxy used in hand lay-up process. Therefore, from rule of
mixture, the layer of epoxy will decrease the Young’s modulus of the laminate. As a result, the
analysis is performed under the assumption that the materials are isotropic.

Table 2: Material Properties

Materials Young’s modulus [GPa] Strength [MPa]
o
Plywood only (0 ) 6.18 50.3
Plywood only (90o) 6.05 49.2
Plywood with one fiberglass 5.49 52.8
Plywood with two fiberglass 6.21 59.5
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 225 307

(a) Plywood [6] (b) Fiberglass

Fig. 2 Materials for fuselage structure

Preliminary Design
After the conceptual design process, the configuration of the aircraft is determined. Due to the
limitation of the payload that must be stored inside the fuselage, the internal diameter of the fuselage
must be larger than the maximum length of the payload in both vertical and lateral directions.
Aluminum blocks that must be placed in the vertical arrangement are 12.7cm in height. The two-liter
of water tank has the diameter of 11cm and the length of 35cm. It is more appropriate to place this
water tank in the longitudinal direction of the fuselage. So, the minimum internal height of the
fuselage is 12.7cm. The structure for the fuselage is designed as shown in Fig. 3. The cross section of
the ring-shape rib has the inner diameter 24cm for payloads and wing box which will be placed
underneath the floor of the fuselage. The floor, which is the backbone shape, is positioned about
3.5cm below the center, so that there is enough space for the payloads and other components. The
outer diameter of the ring is about 28cm; this comes from the thickness of the ring that can prevent the
crack during the manufacturing process. At the nose, the diameter of the firewall is 15.5cm, which is
large enough to fasten the motor within. As the result, the shape of the fuselage from the nose to the
cargo compartment looks like a cone. Also at the tail, there is a platform for attaching the tail unit.
Longerons are chosen to increase the strength of the structure, especially at the firewall and tail. The
model of the fuselage structure is created and the stress analysis is performed by CATIA.

Fig. 3 CAD model Fig. 4 FEM model

Fig. 5 FEM analysis Fig. 6 Strain gauges for dynamic drop test
308 AEROTECH IV

Finite Element Analysis

Finite element analysis is conducted to simulate the designed fuselage structure under the load in
the landing condition. Material properties are assumed to be isotropic according to materials selection
process. For the landing condition, the whole structure is modeled to experience 3.5g acceleration [7].
Every connecting part is realistically link in the simulation. The static model of wing and fuselage
which is supported at the two main landing gears as shown in Fig. 4 is considered. The mesh size of
fuselage structure is refined for the accurate results. The result in Fig. 5 shows that the maximum
stress in the structure is 54.1MPa which less than the strength of the material (plywood with two
fiberglass layers on each side). It can be seen that safety factor of this fuselage is 1.1 and the mass of
the fuselage is found to be 0.813kg.

Dynamic Drop Test

The UAV aircraft with all loads is positioned at the determined height and released to simulate the
free-fall situation. From FAR part 23.473 [8], the descent velocity varies with the wing loading of the
aircraft. After calculating the descent velocity which should not be less than 7fps, the energy
conservation relation is used to determine the drop height. To verify the life cycles of this fuselage, the
height corresponding to 7fps or 23.2cm is used. The four strain gauges as shown in Fig. 6 are used to
measure strains at different locations where the stresses are predicted to be large. The structure is
tested by dropping 20 times at 23.2cm above the ground to verify the life-cycle then increasing the
height to 35cm for 5 cycles and 47cm for 5 cycles, respectively.

Results
By comparing the results between the dynamic drop test and the finite element analysis under
1.45g [9], it can be seen that the finite element analysis can predict the stress occurring in the fuselage
structure due to the small difference between these results. The maximum stresses from 23.2cm,
35cm, and 47cm drop height which covered the landing situation can be found to be 22.4MPa,
26.9MPa, and 31.2MPa, respectively. It can be seen that the fuselage can sustained the structure
during required 20 life cycles as shown in Fig. 7 and do not fail even under the maximum landing
situation. Anyway, the failure is observed at wing structure as shown in Fig. 8 after the test at 35cm
and found to completely fail after the third drop at the height 47cm.

(a) 5th cycle (b) 20th cycle

Fig. 7 Dynamic drop tests

Discussions
The finite element analysis shows that the maximum stress under 3.5g is 54.1MPa which is less
than the strength of the material and can be considered to be safely supported loads. The results is
verified by the dynamic drop test to ensure that the fuselage can function for at least 20 life cycles,
even under more severe situation. Anyway, the design should be improved for optimum design or
better fuselage’s performance.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 225 309

The structure between two largest ribs is not rigid enough due to the required space for positioning
the wing and the payload. If the removable linkages as shown in Fig. 9 are added at the top and bottom
of the ribs, the maximum stress is found to be significantly decreased and lead to stronger structure.

Added linkages

Maximum stress = 31.9 MPa

Fig. 8 Wing failure Fig. 9 Improved fuselage design

Conclusions
The design and analysis of UAV fuselage is performed. This fuselage can be safety supported load
under landing condition during its designed life cycle when verified by using dynamic drop test and
more severe loading condition. Additionally, the improvement of the fuselage is considered, resulting
in the significantly increase in load efficiency. Finally, it can be concluded that this paper succeeds in
designing and analyzing light-weight UAV fuselage for the short-term use with mass carrying
capacity of 2kg.

References
[1] D.P. Raymer, Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, fourth ed., AIAA Educational Series,
2006
[2] T.C. Corke, Design of Aircraft, USA: Pearson Education Inc, 2003
[3] C.J. Kourloufas, Structural Optimisation of the Fuselage for the ADFA SAE Aero Design UAV,
University of New South Wales, 2008
[4] M.C.Y. Niu, Airframe Structural Design, Conmilit Press Ltd, 1988
[5] H. Thoeme, M. Irle, M. Sernek, Wood-Based Panels an Introduction for Specialists, Brunel
University Press, London, UB8 3PH. England, 2010
[6] Information on http://www.carllswoodproducts.com/plywood.html
[7] F. Hurlimann, R. Kelm, M. Dugas, K. Oltmann, G. Kress, Mass Estimation of Transport Aircraft
Wingbox Structures with a CAD/CAE-based Multidisciplinary Process, Aerospace Science and
Technology, 15 (2011) 323–333
[8] Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Aviation Regulations Part 23 Airworthiness Standards:
Normal, Utility, Acrobatic and Commuter Category Airplanes, USA: Federal Aviation
Administration, 2004
[9] A.W. Hall, R.H. Sawyer, J.M. Mckay, Study of Ground-reaction Forces Measured during Landing
Impacts of a Large Airplane, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Technical Note 4247,
Washington, May 1958
AEROTECH IV
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.225

Design and Analysis of UAV Fuselage

10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.225.305