Aeroelastic Shape Optimization of a Flapping Wing

Stewart, Edward; Patil, Mayuresh; Canfield, Robert A.; Snyder, Richard

doi:10.2514/6.2014-0469

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Most researchers studied a combined pitching and plunging motion of FWAV, such as Jones [8], Heath cote [9], Stewart [10], and so on. Their analysis was based on two-dimension aerodynamic model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lift and Thrust Characteristics of Flapping Wing Aerial Vehicle with Pitching and Flapping Motion

Yu¹,

Kim²,

Zhao³

2014

JAMP

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Development of flapping wing aerial vehicle (FWAV) has been of interest in the aerospace community with ongoing research into unsteady and low Reynolds number aerodynamics based on the vortex lattice method. Most of the previous research has been about pitching and plunging motion of the FWAV. With pitching and flapping motion of FMAV, people usually study it by experiment, and little work has been done by numerical calculation. In this paper, three-dimension unsteady vortex lattice method is applied to study the lift and thrust of FWAV with pitching and flapping motion. The results show that: 1) Lift is mainly produced during down stroke, however, thrust is produced during both down stroke and upstroke. The lift and thrust produced during down stroke are much more than that produced during upstroke. 2) Lift and thrust increase with the increase of flapping frequency; 3) Thrust increases with the increase of flapping amplitude, but the lift decreases with the increase of flapping amplitude; 4) Lift and thrust increase with the increase of mean pitching angle, but the effect on lift is much more than on thrust. This research is helpful to understand the flight mechanism of birds, thus improving the design of FWAV simulating birds.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lift and Thrust Characteristics of Flapping Wing Aerial Vehicle with Pitching and Flapping Motion

Yu¹,

Kim²,

Zhao³

2014

JAMP

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“…Nakata et al [5] presented a fluid-structure interaction model of insect flapping flight with a flexible wing, using a linear material model. Stewart et al [6] presented a theory and results of shape variation and structural optimization for a plate-like flapping wing. According to this study, the density of a wing material plays a role in the optimal wing design.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress Analysis of Membrane Flapping-Wing Aerial Vehicle Based on Different Material Models

Yu¹,

Kim²,

Zhao³

2014

JAMP

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Recent studies of flapping-wing aerial vehicles have been focused on the aerodynamic performance based on linear materials. Little work has been done on structural analysis based on nonlinear material models. A stress analysis is conducted in this study on membrane flapping-wing aerial vehicles using finite element method based on three material models, namely, linear elastic, Mooney-Rivlin non linear, and composite material models. The purpose of this paper is to understand how different types of materials affect the stresses of a flapping-wing. In the finite element simulation, each flapping cycle is divided into twelve stages and the maximum stress is calculated in each stage. The results show that 1) there are two peak stress values in one flapping cycle; one at the beginning stage of down stroke and the other at the beginning of upstroke, 2) maximum stress at the beginning of down stroke is greater than that at the beginning of upstroke, 3) maximum stress based on each material model is different. The composite and the Mooney-Rivlin nonlinear models produce much less stresses compared to the linear material model; and 4) the ratio of downstroke maximum stress and upstroke maximum stress varies with different material models. This research is helpful in answering why insect wings are so impeccable, thus providing a possibility of improving the design of flapping-wing aerial vehicles.

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A Wind Tunnel Experimental Study on the Flexible Flapping Wing With an Attached Airfoil to the Root

et al. 2019

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With the purpose to improve the performance of the flexible membrane flapping wing, a kind of flapping wing with an attached airfoil to the root is designed and tested in a wind tunnel. In order to study, the actual performance improvement of the flapping wing, the flight performance is calculated and compared instead of the aerodynamic performance. A method to establish a semi-empirical cycle-averaged mathematical model for the flapping wing with high precision based on the wind tunnel experiment is proposed to calculate the flight performance. The established continuous mathematical model can solve the problem of how to obtain the trimmed state by using discrete experimental data. By attaching the airfoil EPPLER 378 with a thickness of 4.07% chord length to the root, the cruise velocity envelope is expanded, especially with a small cruise velocity. Although the attached airfoil to the root can cause a slight decrease in endurance and range of the flapping wing, it will greatly enhance the climbing performance and effectively reduce the demand for the takeoff sites. Besides, the flapping wing with an attached airfoil to the root will result in a significant reduction in the radius of steady turning and will improve the maneuverability. In addition, the airfoil EJ 85, which is similar to the airfoil EPPLER 378 in shape and camber but has a larger thickness of 6.5% chord length, is attached to the root of the original flapping wing. The same experiment and modeling procedure are performed on the airfoil EJ 85 to analyze the difference in performance of the flapping wing with different airfoil thickness.

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Aeroelastic Shape Optimization of a Flapping Wing

Cited by 6 publications

References 24 publications

Lift and Thrust Characteristics of Flapping Wing Aerial Vehicle with Pitching and Flapping Motion

Lift and Thrust Characteristics of Flapping Wing Aerial Vehicle with Pitching and Flapping Motion

Stress Analysis of Membrane Flapping-Wing Aerial Vehicle Based on Different Material Models

A Wind Tunnel Experimental Study on the Flexible Flapping Wing With an Attached Airfoil to the Root

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