DESIGN, ANALYSIS AND 3D PRINTING OF AN UNMANNED AIRCRAFT WITH UNCONVENTIONAL STRUCTURE

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a manufacturing process that produces three-dimensional products with complex geometries and shapes by depositing material. In this paper the aim was to manufacture an aircraft with an unconventional structure using additive manufacturing processes. The first step was the design of the UAV structural solution, for which CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and FEM (Finite Element Analysis) analyses were carried out in order to validate the model. The second step that is the actual manufacture of the aircraft, the thermoplastic filament extrusion manufacturing process was used to obtain the components of the UAV model. The application of the thermoplastic extrusion process improved the aerodynamic characteristics and the strength of the aircraft, which was demonstrated by ground testing of the aircraft.