University of Miami - Essay Example

As a function of this, UAVs operating in various places throughout the world, namely Iraq and Afghanistan, began to suffer a high attrition rate due to the icing of the wings that invariably occurs at high attitudes. As such, this represented a primary design flaw in that the UAV manufacturers had not foreseen the fact that due to the pilotless nature of the aircraft, it would be nearly impossible for a UAV pilot to notice and infer that icing was taking place; let alone seeks to counteract such an eventuality by employing countermeasures.

Moreover, the analysis will look at the use of FEA as a means of solving the complex problems that the engineers were faced. In order to rapidly and cost effectively integrate such a level of changes, the engineers went back to the proverbial drawing board and utilized CAD (Computer Assisted Design) to seek to draw a further level of inference upon the issue at hand. Mainly, these tools were used by the analysts to seek to determine the CFD properties that the wings exhibited. The CFD, or Computational Fluid Dynamics, was a way that the engineers could seek to provide the wings and surface areas of the associated aircraft with the highest level of protection against the accumulation of ice without having the cover the entire aircraft in costly, heavy, and ultimately ineffective de-icing mechanisms.

The overall importance of seeking to maximize the level of “bang for the buck” with relation to where the de-icing systems were ultimately installed centered upon the fact that the sheer nature of the jobs which the UAV’s perform and support require that they remain aloft for extraordinarily long periods of time. As a function of this, it is necessary for these aircraft to be as light, and as fuel efficient as possible. Likewise, seeking to utilize CAD and CFD to determine what aspects of the aircraft lay at the greatest degree of risk with