Large-scale Airflow Mapping with Un-crewed Aerial Systems (UAS)

Several industries require airflow characterisation around large objects for safety and engineering purposes, such as construction/architecture, aviation, wind energy, and air quality. Despite CFD advances, physical experimentation must often occur. Large-scale characterisation (wind turbines, airports, urban areas) relies on either laboratory analogues (cost scales exponentially with complexity) or fixed observations (laborious to install and only a subsample). Un-crewed aerial systems or ‘drones’ have potential for conducting such airflow surveys. These small multi-rotor aircraft are sensitive to wind and must quantify and offset any force applied by the fluid motion. Furthermore, air quality sensors on-board can detect tracers for real-world airflow mapping, quantifying dispersion and turbulence. Such a system can also be used to identify the source of airborne pollutant releases, an essential tool for any governing body to enforce air quality standards to benefit public health. 

In this project, you will work with industry sponsors Menapia Ltd. to develop methods for airflow mapping of complex structures with UAS/swarms, initially focussing on the validation of CFD models. The integration of air quality sensors onto an existing UAS platform will allow you to design gas/particulate tracer fieldwork experiments and combine your airflow mapping work to ‘hunt down’ their origin for public enforcement.