Experimental Investigation on the Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Bio-mimetic Flapping Wing with Macro-fiber Composites

Abstract

This study describes the development of a bio-mimetic flapping wing and the aerodynamic characteristics of a flexible flapping wing. First, the flapping wing is designed to produce flapping, twisting, and camber motions by using a bio-mimetic design approach. A structural model for a macro-fiber composite (MFC) actuator is established, and structural analysis of a smart flapping wing with the actuator is performed to determine the wing configuration for maximum camber motion. The analysis model is verified with the experimental data of the smart flapping wing. Second, aerodynamic tests are performed for the smart flapping wing in a subsonic wind tunnel, and the aerodynamic forces are measured for various test conditions. Additionally, the effects of camber and chordwise wing flexibility on unsteady and quasi-steady aerodynamic characteristics are discussed. The experimental results demonstrate that the effect of the camber generated by the MFC produces sufficient aerodynamic benefit. It is further found that chordwise wing flexibility is an important parameter in terms of affecting aerodynamic performance, and that lift produced in a quasi-steady flow condition is mostly affected by the forward speed and effective angle of attack.

Flexible clap and fling in tiny insect flight

“…Ishihara et al studied passive pitching by modeling a rigid wing that was free to pitch and were able to generate sinusoidal motions that produced enough lift to support some Diptera (Ishihara et al, 2009). A number of other studies have explored the role of wing flexibility in avian flight (Heathcote et al, 2008;Kim et al, 2008) and thrust generation (Alben, 2008;Lauder et al, 2006;.…”

Coupling of experimentally validated electroelastic dynamics and mixing rules formulation for macro-fiber composite piezoelectric structures

“…The advantages of the MFC technology over monolithic piezoelectrics include increased flexibility, improved actuation authority, and anisotropic behavior. These characteristics of MFCs have led to experimental applications including structural sensing and vibration control (Browning et al, 2009;Sodano et al, 2004), bio-inspired locomotion (Cen and Erturk, 2013;Erturk and Delporte, 2011), acoustic wave devices (Collet et al, 2011;Matt and Di Scalea, 2007), morphing-wing and flapping-wing structures (Bilgen et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2007;Kim and Han, 2006;Paradies and Ciresa, 2009), and in-air/underwater dynamic actuation or energy harvesting (Cha et al, 2013(Cha et al, , 2016Erturk and Delporte, 2011;Shahab and Erturk, 2014b, 2014c.…”

Aerodynamics, sensing and control of insect-scale flapping-wing flight

“…In bird-sized flapping-wing robots, researchers are less restricted on the materials and manufacturing methods. Carbon rods are the most prevalent option for constructing structural components due to its favourable stiffness-to-weight ratio [102,[108][109][110][111]. Metal sheets, latex, PVC film and nylon have been experimentally employed as wing membrane [111,112].…”

“…At bird scale, artificial wings are typically constructed via a traditional simple cut-and-glue method. That is, the wingframes are bonded to the membrane using epoxy or cyanoacrylate adhesive [102,111].…”