Experimental Evaluation of Propeller and Motor for a Solar-Powered UAV

An efficient electric propulsion system is essential to increase the flight duration of an electric-powered U nmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). It is more pronounced when there is little power available on board such as those utilizing solar power as their main power source. This research is focused on selecting the best combination of electric propulsion components to be installed in our in-house developed hybrid solar-powered fixed-wing VAV. The main objective of this paper is to determine the best combination of propeller through a static test bench with two different brushless DC motors. Initially, a flight test was performed on the UAV prototype to evaluate the cruising performance requirement for straight and level flight. Subsequently, an experimental evaluation of 35 different propellers was performed using a bench test static thrust measurement system. An analysis was carried out from a total of 70 test samples. The analysis was done in order to find the best-performing combination of propeller and motor. The static thrust test revealed that a propeller with a diameter of 12 inches would perform better. However, a dynamic test needs to be conducted in the future to compare their performance.