Senior Project

Folding Wing for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Redesigned the wings of an APV drone from 6ft to 9 ft and changed the material from aluminum to carbon fiber.

Spent the first half of the project calculating the aerodynamic loads and stress the wing would experience, and then designed it for the worst load case.

Concurrently conducted analysis on the composite lay up to be used for the spar, wing skins, and the metallic hinge that needed to transfer almost all the loads from the tip of the wing to the root.

In the latter half of the project, the team manufactured the wing using 5-harness woven prepreg carbon fiber and aluminum 7075. We worked on everything from creating cutting plans and work schedules to debulking and bonding.

We used Matlab, SolidWorks, Abaqus and Microsoft Excel for the project.

Went through a Mission Concept Review (MCR), Preliminary Design Review (PDR), Manufacturing Readiness Review (MRR), Test Readiness Review (TRR) and System Acceptance Review (SAR).