Mentors: Dr. Meenakshi Viswanathan and Dr. Aravinda Raghavan
Wing Sweep Angle and Coefficient of Drag are important parameters for any aircraft design. In this experiment, we hypothesize that within bounds of experimental error, there exists a relation between Wing Sweep angle and Coefficient of Drag for any aircraft design. Traditional methods for finding drag coefficient like Wind Tunnel testing and CFD Simulations are tricky to set up, time consuming and expensive-both cost wise and computationally. Instead, we use a low cost, easy to setup drop test method to calculate the drag coefficient of the model aircraft. A model aeroplane with an accelerometer attached in its nose was dropped from a fixed height. The accelerometer data was then analysed to find the Coefficient of Drag. The same experiment is performed with various Sweep Angles to find a relation between Sweep Angle and Drag Coefficient.
Please find the project overview below: