Aerodynamics Design of Multirotor UAVs

A special issue of Machines (ISSN 2075-1702). This special issue belongs to the section "Vehicle Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 2

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Interests: rotary-wing aerodynamics; helicopter comfort; computational fluid dynamics; aeroelasticity; fluid–structure interaction; multibody dynamics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) represent a class of vertical takeoff and landing vehicles characterized by sophisticated aerodynamic interactions of multiple rotors, unsteady wake dynamics, and tight intercoupling between propulsion and control systems. This Special Issue invites original research papers to foster the aerodynamic design of multirotor UAVs by developing high-fidelity computational and experimental methods. Research topics of interest include, but are not limited to, computational fluid dynamics (CFDs), vortex particle methods (VPMs), and other numerical formulations capable of modeling rotor-to-rotor and rotor-to-wing flow interactions, turbulent flow phenomena, and wake dynamics. Submissions related to the determination of aerodynamic coefficients and dynamic derivatives essential for control structure, stability analysis, and system identification are particularly welcome. Submissions based on surrogate modeling, reduced-order modeling, hybrid simulation–experiment paradigms, wind tunnel tests, flight test data analysis, and uncertainty quantification methods are acceptable. Additionally, new rotor geometries, optimization methods, data-driven or machine learning-enabled design solutions, and submissions are welcome. Submissions involving aerodynamic performance evaluation coupled with energy efficiency or environmental impact assessment will also be greatly appreciated. This Special Issue is intended to advance interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers in UAV aerodynamics, flight mechanics, and systems engineering, thereby contributing to the development of safe, efficient, and high-performance multirotor systems.

Dr. Alessandro Cocco
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • multirotor UAVs
  • computational fluid dynamics
  • vortex particle methods
  • aerodynamic derivatives

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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