Pitot Tube Mount

Task Description

We need to mount a pitot tube to our wing to measure airspeed. The airspeed sensor and pitot tube (look at last picture) we have chosen: Matek Digital Airspeed Sensor ASPD-DLVR. We can modify the length of the tube. This sketch gives a pretty good idea of location and other sensors:

Open

• CAD for the sensor: Free CAD Designs, Files & 3D Models | The GrabCAD Community Library

• CAD for the tube: https://grabcad.com/library/pitot-tube-5

Constraints

Assignees

Task Progression/Updates

Author: @Camilo Artigas Alos Date: 2025/01/18

First Revision

After a lot of deliberation and thought , I’ve come up with this arrangement for the mount. The tube is constrained by a circular opening and a bolt that would go through its mounting plate:

Open

Existing CAD of the mount.

I’ve decided to attach the mount to the box tube, with two new holes that would need to be milled out. This is a way for the mount to be fully reliable and constrainted within the frame, it also allows for the height to be played with along with the placement along the tube.

I haven’t done any changes the cad of the box tube, whenever this is approved/iterated on, I will create a new version for the box tube which will include the holes and I will mill them out myself.

Author: @Nathaniel Li Date: Jan 19, 2025

CAD Review 1

• Great work!

• I like how you constrained the pitot tube

• There are some considerations that will require design changes

• Currently the pitot inlet only has about 3.7mm of clearance from the rib (and therefore the monokote) so I have concerns about airflow disruption within the boundary layer

  • Typically, the boundary layer is very thin and to calculate how far it actually extends from the wing we would need to do a CFD analysis

  • Given the size of our plane, we can say 10mm is enough for now → Increase distance from wing surface (aka rib surface) to at least 10mm

  • Below is an image showing the distance I’m talking about

• The pitot (and therefore mount) needs to be halfway along the wingspan but there’s weight saving cutout in the spar where that currently is

  • There’s 2 ways to go about this:

    • You can modify the mount to be larger or mount to the spar differently

    • Alternatively, you can integrate the mount into one of the rib spacers so it’s one 3d print

    • This is ideal for simplicity and manufacturing

  • Below is an image showing where the mount needs to go

Author: @Camilo Artigas Alos Date: 2025/01/18

Second Revision

Implementing Nathaniel’s comments, the mount has been integrated into a spacer.

The pitot tube is now placed at the center of the left wing. The height might need adjustment but I believe the form factor is decent.