Aerodynamics Analysis of a Boomerang Blended-Wing-Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle using Different Numerical Simulation Tools

Boomerang blended -wing -body (BWB) is a compound wing consisting of inboard and outboard wings that resembles the shape of a boomerang. For the focused Boomerang BWB unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design, the inboard sweep angle is 40 degrees while the outboard sweep angle is 35 degrees. In addition, the Boomerang BWB UAV has a wingspan of 1.74 meters. This study analyzes a BWB planform on different types of numerical computational applications. Three different computational simulation analysis tools are applied in analyzing its aerodynamic characteristics: panel code method using VSPAERO, Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model in ANSYS Fluent and OpenFoam. It should be noted that the analysis is performed at a cruising speed of 15 m/s and the angle of attack is varied between -5 degrees and 20 degrees. In general, the simulation results from these two methods show greatly similar trends of aerodynamic characteristics for the Boomerang BWB UAV design, even though there are notable differences in the estimated values that go up to more than 80%. The maximum lift to drag ratio result obtained through VSPAERO is 17.9 at 5.0 o angle of attack. According to ANSYS Fluent, the maximum L/D is 13.1 at 5.0 o angle of attack and OpenFOAM obtained 24.0 at approximately 11.0 o angle of attack. The percentage difference of maximum L/D between VSPAERO-ANSYS Fluent is 31.0%, higher than VSPAERO-OpenFOAM's 29.1%. While ANSYS Fluent and OpenFOAM is supposed to be of higher fidelity than VSPAERO, future experimental wind tunnel tests can help to further validate the accuracy of the simulation results. The findings from the present studies are anticipated to furnish valuable information to aerodynamicists, particularly those who are working with similar BWB concept.