Design analysis of payload carrying quadcopter using finite element analysis

Quad-copter is UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicles), an advance highly manoeuvrable aircraft which has simple design and structure plays an important role in different sectors like for surveillance, military operations, delivery of goods in complex areas, etc. Quad copter frame modelling is useful to analyse the reliability of body frame part and to help determine the payload a drone can carry, stress experienced by the frame, deformation of the frame and other characteristics. This paper aims to highlight the design procedure of the most efficient mechanical structure of payload carrying drone (Quad-copter) with minimum deformation, stress, weight and maximum factor of safety. The proposed design of drone can lift a payload and hover for 40 minutes; calculations were done considering 2.8kg payload as the boundary condition for operation. The frame design at end comprises deformation less than 0.0636mm and stress 4.7533 MPa. This paper covers the entire design in 3 parts- force calculation on paper, stress calculation of most stress concentrated parts, Finite Element Analysis of the structure/assembly. Solidworks software has been used to design and analyse the quad copter's frame using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) method.