www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF MICRO AIR VEHICLE WITH ZIMMERMAN PLATFORM GELLA SHIVA DURGA MADHAV 1 , YELLURI SHWETHA 2 & DUSSA GOVARDHAN 3 1,2 Assistant Professor Institute of Aeronautical Engineering, Dundigal, Hyderabad, India 3 Professor Institute of Aeronautical Engineering, Dundigal, Hyderabad, India ABSTRACT A Micro air vehicle of span 0.15 meter as basic prerequisite is designed with Zimmerman wing such that the structure is small enough, promised with high structural integrity and to serve its function for optical surveillance with all different electronic components used in the successful MAVs. Zimmerman wing which has a distinct characteristic of low aspect ratio and low Reynolds number is designed by considering several conceptual design stages. The weight estimation was done including specified electronic components. Lift and Drag forces are evaluated for different AOA and at different velocities through computational analysis for this design. The final design results show that the design can fly at certain operating conditions. KEYWORDS: Zimmerman Wing, Successful MAVs & Different AOA Received: Jan 24, 2018; Accepted: Feb 14, 2018; Published: Mar 12, 2018; Paper Id: IJMPERDAPR201875 INTRODUCTION The increasing demand for miniature-sized vehicles which can perform the surveillance operations more efficiently in an undetectable manner was the major driving factor behind the development of the MAVs though they are being used for different purposes today x . As the technology progressed, there is a need for further reduction in the size of the vehicle so that it remains unidentified while performing the given task. The small size of the vehicle imposes constraints on the weight of the structure and on the payload that can be carried on the vehicle x . The strength to weight ratio plays an important role in the fabrication of the vehicle. The structural integrity of the MAV has to be maintained for its proper functioning. Wings of AR less than 1.25 depicted abnormally high coefficients of lift x (higher than those obtainable even with infinite wings) and correspondingly high angles of attack. The semicircular wing tip models (Zimmerman) exhibits superior performance compared to the other shapes x . This semicircular wing tip model is known as Zimmerman. Wing geometry is one of the important parameters which affect the aerodynamic characteristics of Low Aspect Ratio wings at low Reynolds numbers x . The Zimmerman was chosen for its distinct geometric characteristics. The advantage of this shape is the lower interference of the tip vortices on the top of the planform due to its semicircular shape x . The Zimmerman and inverse Zimmerman plan-forms are based on wingtip shapes designed by Zimmerman in the 1930s. It consists of two half ellipses joined either at the quarter chord location (in case of Zimmerman planform) or at the three quarter chord location (in case of the inverse Zimmerman planform). One ellipse has semi-major axis a3 and semi-minor axis a 1, while the other has semi-major axis a 2 and semi-minor axis a 3 x . Similar is the formation of inverse Zimmerman plan form. Wing plan forms were found to have significant aerodynamic effects on the lift and drag Original Article International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering Research and Development (IJMPERD) ISSN (P): 2249-6890; ISSN (E): 2249-8001 Vol. 8, Issue 2, Apr 2018, 637-648 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd