Parametric 2D CFD Study of V Formation Aerodynamics for Quadcopter Swarms with an Energy Balancing Swap Strategy

Drone Technology, especially swarm drones have been adopted widely across various sectors. Such as surveillance, intelligent monitoring, rescue operations and many more. Formation flight can extend the endurance of multirotor swarms, yet the optimal geometry for quadcopters remains under-characterized. We present a parametric computational study of five-quadcopter V-formations that evaluates the impact of half V-angle (30°, 45°, 60°) and inter-drone spacing (20–35 cm) on aerodynamic drag and energy use. Using steady 2D RANS (k-ω SST) in ANSYS Fluent with a 15 m/s uniform inlet and 5 % turbulence intensity, we first establish a single-quadcopter baseline (drag ≈ 14.345 N), then quantify per-position and formation-average drag across configurations. The minimum formation-average drag occurs at a 30° half V-angle with 20 cm spacing in our 2D setup. Per-position results reveal substantially higher drag for the two outer trailing quadcopters; for example, at the optimum we observe a representative drag vector of [9.51, 9.06, 8.62, 17.73, 17.72] N, motivating a position-swapping algorithm that schedules time in each slot based on measured drag, equalizes battery depletion, and extends collective flight time. We also articulate the limits of 2D modeling which cannot capture upwash/downwash benefits. Overall, the study combines aerodynamic optimization with simple cooperative control to improve swarm endurance, with relevance to surveillance, search-and-rescue, and networked UAV missions.