Comparison of three methods to determine the inertial properties of free-flying dynamically similar models

Inertial characteristics of the flying vehicle play an important role in dynamics of the vehicle. therefore,experimental determination of the moments of inertia (mi) is one of the main tasks to define the accurate mathematical model. especially,in order to ensure the similitude of mass-inertia parameters in the free-flying dynamically similar models (fdsm),the accuracy of test methods of mi determination has paramount importance. thus,the present study attempts to examine three common techniques of mi estimation. the investigated methods include,compound pendulum,physical double pendulum and bifilar torsional pendulum. these methods have been used in the current conducted experiments,in order to measure the moi of a light unmanned aerial vehicle (uav). additionally,a novel technique has been proposed to evaluate the experiment error using added loads. the results of the test indicate that the bifilar torsional pendulum method is more accurate than the others,and the error can be reduced to less than 2% and 1% about x- and y-axis,respectively. © school of engineering,taylor’s university.