Numerical simulations of the aerodynamics characteristics for a non-conventional unmanned WIG.

In this paper we present our research about a particular ultralight WIG. WIG is theacronym of Wing In Ground effect vehicle. This work is part of a research on the dynamicbehaviour for an UAV-WIG with a particular Tandem – Canard arrangement, study which theauthors have been carrying out from several years.In previous paper the same Authors built a general mathematical model which permit toobtain analytical equations for all the aerodynamic coefficients both Out of Ground Effect andIn Ground Effect conditions.In this paper, a numerical validation of the above mentioned mathematical model isproposed by the application of CFD methods. The mesh has been generated using ICEM 10.0and the simulations have been carried out by means of FLUENT code.The results have shown that the aerodynamics characteristics tendency obtained by theapplication of CFD code is the same of the trend given by the above – mentioned generalmathematical model. For these reasons, this model can be considered as a generalmethodology to study the dynamic behaviour of an aircraft in the whole flight envelope andfor every value of the flight altitude, in particular at very low distance from the ground,therefore, when a WIG flies in extreme ground effect conditions