Research is being carried out with the aim of designinga Very-Long Endurance Solar Powered Autonomous Stratospheric UAV. This UAV could play the role of a pseudo satellite and could offer the advantage of allowing a more detailed land vision due to its relative closeness to land (17-20 km) at a much lower cost than a real satellite. Two different configurationsare under investigation in order to decide on the best solution that will completely satisfy the a priori imposed constraints. In recent years, the aeronautical community has increasingly focused on the design of solar powered platforms and zero emission airplanes; a coupled system (solar array and hydrogen fuel cells) can be used to supply energy throughout the entire day in order to ensure the continuous flight for several months. As known, a fuel cell system requires at least a couple of external tanks for fuel storage. Hydrogen and oxygen are stored using a pressure vessel installed inside the wing. In this way, the stored gases are subjected not only to pressure loads but also to in-flight loads that can abruptly change the optimum layout required to satisfy regulation requirements. A parametric analysis has been performed to define the optimum layout and the number of tanks necessary to supply the required power. In addition a genetic algorithm has been used to optimize the laminate layup in order to reduce the weight of the tank and ensure that it can resist without at failing catastrophically.

Design and Optimization of a Composite Vessel for Hydrogen Storage Subject to Internal Pressure and In-Flight Loads for UAVs / Romeo, Giulio; Danzi, Francesco; Cestino, Enrico; Borello, Fabio. - In: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AEROSPACE SCIENCES. - ISSN 2169-8872. - ELETTRONICO. - 2:3(2013), pp. 124-137. [10.5923/j.aerospace.20130203.05]

Design and Optimization of a Composite Vessel for Hydrogen Storage Subject to Internal Pressure and In-Flight Loads for UAVs

ROMEO, Giulio;DANZI, FRANCESCO;CESTINO, ENRICO;BORELLO, FABIO
2013

Abstract

Research is being carried out with the aim of designinga Very-Long Endurance Solar Powered Autonomous Stratospheric UAV. This UAV could play the role of a pseudo satellite and could offer the advantage of allowing a more detailed land vision due to its relative closeness to land (17-20 km) at a much lower cost than a real satellite. Two different configurationsare under investigation in order to decide on the best solution that will completely satisfy the a priori imposed constraints. In recent years, the aeronautical community has increasingly focused on the design of solar powered platforms and zero emission airplanes; a coupled system (solar array and hydrogen fuel cells) can be used to supply energy throughout the entire day in order to ensure the continuous flight for several months. As known, a fuel cell system requires at least a couple of external tanks for fuel storage. Hydrogen and oxygen are stored using a pressure vessel installed inside the wing. In this way, the stored gases are subjected not only to pressure loads but also to in-flight loads that can abruptly change the optimum layout required to satisfy regulation requirements. A parametric analysis has been performed to define the optimum layout and the number of tanks necessary to supply the required power. In addition a genetic algorithm has been used to optimize the laminate layup in order to reduce the weight of the tank and ensure that it can resist without at failing catastrophically.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2516705
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