Lightweight Design of Solar UAV Wing Structures Based on Sandwich Equivalent Theory

In this paper, an equivalent method based on sandwich plate is deduced, and the equivalent parameters of the honeycomb plate are obtained. With these equivalent parameters, the honeycomb plate equivalent FEM simulation model and actual model are established, and three-point bending simulations of the equivalent model and the actual model three-point are completed. Then, a three-point bending test of a real honeycomb sandwich panel was performed for comparison with the simulation result, which agrees well with the test result and shows the effectiveness of the equivalent model. The equivalent model of honeycomb sandwich plate win ribs is established for structural topology optimization and wing static simulation analysis, and a prototype of the solar UAV is made for flight testing according to the topology optimization results. The simulation and prototype test results indicated that the sandwich equivalent theory is suitable for the lightweight design of solar UAV wing structures with honeycomb sandwich plate materials, and this method can provide a reference for the same type of wing structure design.