CFD analysis of a multi-rotor flying robot for air pollution inspection

Abstract

Abstract The aim of the work was to create a CFD model of the flow generated around the drone to estimate the impact of field parameters on the results of actual measurements from PM sensors that are positioned differently in relation to the propellers. The model created with the use of the ANSYS Fluent software allowed one to determine the criterion of their sufficient distance. The robots with four, six and eight rotors were analyzed. For these, the turbulence intensity, velocity and pressure distributions were determined. The paper also presents the results of PM measurements carried out under field conditions using two sensors mounted on the hexacopter robot.