Numerical Research and Optimization of the Radiator for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Electric Controller

Modern unmanned aerial vehicles require decrease of the mass for its component to provide higher load capacity and operating range. Cooling system of the electronic components have significant mass and thus its decrease can be very beneficial to improvement of UAV performance. Two main methods of mass decrease was considered: implementation of higher number of smaller fins and using cylindrical shape of the fins. Smaller fins allows to increase fin efficiency to keep optimal temperature of the fin and cylindrical fins have higher surface-to-mass ratio which allows to decrease weight of the system. Fin efficiency as high as 96% was reached during analysis. Optimized model with smaller fins with higher distance between fins on the periphery and higher fins with less distance between them in center was suggested. Optimized model showed 17.4% mass decrease in comparison with prototype with same operating temperature of about 410 K.