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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Numerical simulations of the aerodynamics characteristics for a non-conventional unmanned WIG.

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In this paper we present our research about a particular ultralight WIG. WIG is the acronym of Wing In Ground effect vehicle. This work is part of a research on the dynamic behaviour for an UAV-WIG with a particular Tandem – Canard arrangement, study which the authors have been carrying out from several years. In previous paper the same Authors built a general mathematical model which permit to obtain analytical equations for all the aerodynamic coefficients both Out of Ground Effect and In Ground Effect conditions. In this paper, a numerical validation of the above mentioned mathematical model is proposed by the application of CFD methods. The mesh has been generated using ICEM 10.0 and the simulations have been carried out by means of FLUENT code. The results have shown that the aerodynamics characteristics tendency obtained by the application of CFD code is the same of the trend given by the above – mentioned general mathematical model. For these reasons, this model can be considered as a general methodology to study the dynamic behaviour of an aircraft in the whole flight envelope and for every value of the flight altitude, in particular at very low distance from the ground, therefore, when a WIG flies in extreme ground effect conditions