Abstract: “The work carried out in this paper is aimed towards CFD study and empirical determination of parameters that effect the lift and drag coefficients of fixed wing micro aerial vehicles. Empirical formulae are devised for calculating these aerodynamic coefficients in order to alleviate the computational cost incurred by conventional high fidelity software tools. Two of the most widely used planform shapes for fixed wing micro aerial vehicles i.e. rectangular and Zimmerman shapes are chosen for study with cambered low Reynolds number airfoil E61. The results obtained using the empirical formulae are compared with that of ANSYS FLUENT[1] software. Moreover, flat plate results from wind tunnel experimentations by Thomas Mueller et al.[2] have been compared with corresponding FLUENT[1] CFD results as well as with the empirical formulation.”

Keywords: Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV), CFD Fluent[1] , Wind Tunnel Test, Lift Coefficient, Drag Coefficient, Advance Ratio, Wetted Area Ratio Introduction