Multibody Dynamic and Aerodynamic Modeling of a Tube-Launched Sweep Morphing Unmanned Aerial System

Recently, tube-launched unmanned aerial systems (UAS) with sweep morphing lifting surfaces have grown in popularity. Such systems exhibit strong coupling between the structural dynamics, aerodynamics and flight dynamics due to its multibody dynamics. In existing literature, mid-fidelity aerodynamic models coupled to free-flight multibody dynamic models are spare. Thus, an unsteady panel method is coupled with a multibody model, to quantify the strength of the interaction. First, the aerodynamic model is compared to an unsteady Reynoldsaveraged Navier Stokes simulation, establishing its suitability to model such UASs. Then, the coupled model is applied to a free-flight simulation. The relative motion of its own lifting surfaces induces a change in pitch angle of several degrees. Furthermore, the angle of attack may vary by several degrees during the deployment, stressing the need to include the flight dynamic motion in the modeling of such system.