Performance Analysis of a Flapping-Wing Vehicle Based on Experimental Aerodynamic Data
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 25, Issue 1
Abstract
Flapping-wing vehicles produce aerodynamic lift and thrust through the flapping motion of their wings. The performance of a flexible-membrane flapping wing is experimentally investigated here. A new scheme for finding flight envelopes for a particular flapping vehicle is introduced as well. A flapping-wing system and an experimental setup are designed to measure the lift, thrust, and power usage of the flapping-wing motion for different flapping frequencies, angles of incidence, and various wind tunnel velocities up to . The obtained results are used in the performance analysis of this flapping wing. For each given weight (or payload), one may find the best cruise speed for maximum range, corresponding to a minimum ratio of power to cruise speed (i.e., energy usage for unit distance), or for maximum endurance corresponding to minimum power (i.e., minimum flapping frequency).
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers acknowledge the support of the Sharif University of Technology and the Aerospace Engineering Department.
References
Ames, R. (2001). “On the flowfield and forces generated by a rectangular wing undergoing moderate reduced frequency flapping at low Reynolds number.” Ph.D. thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.
Fritz, T. E., and Long, L. N. (2004). “Object-oriented unsteady vortex lattice method for flapping flight.” J. Aircr., 41(6), 1275–1290.
Gallivan, P., and DeLaurier, J. (2007). “An experimental study of flapping membrane wings.” Can. Aeronaut. Space J., 53(2), 35–46.
Gebert, G., Gallmeier, P., and Evers, J. (2002). “Equations of motion for flapping flight.” AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conf., Monterey, CA.
Ho, S. (2003). “Unsteady aerodynamics and adaptive flow control of micro air vehicles.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
Hong, Y. S., and Altman, A. (2007). “Streamwise vorticity in simple mechanical flapping wings.” J. Aircr., 44(5), 1588–1597.
Isaac, K., Colozza, A., and Rolwes, J. (2006). “Force measurements on a flapping and pitching wing at low Reynolds numbers.” 44th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV.
Jones, K. D., et al. (2002). “A collaborative numerical and experimental investigation of flapping-wing propulsion.” 40th Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit, Reno, NV.
Kim, D. K., Kim, H. I., Han, J. H., and Kwon, K. J. (2008). “Experimental investigation on the aerodynamic characteristics of a bio-mimetic flapping wing with macro-fiber composites.” J. Intell. Mater. Syst. Struct., 19(3), 423–431.
Lasek, M., and Sibliski, K. (2003). “Analysis of flight dynamics and control of an entomopter.” AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conf. and Exhibit, Austin, TX.
Lin, C. S., Hwu, C., and Young, W. B. (2006). “The thrust and lift of an ornithopter’s membrane wings with simple flapping motion.” Aerosp. Sci. Technol., 10(2), 111–119.
Mantia, M. L., and Dabnichki, P. (2009). “Unsteady panel method for flapping foil.” Eng. Anal. Boundary Elem., 33(4), 572–580.
Mazaheri, K., and Ebrahimi, A. (2010). “Experimental investigation of the effect of chordwise flexibility on the aerodynamics of flapping wings in hovering flight.” J. Fluids Struct., 26(4), 544–558.
Muniappan, A., Baskar, V., and Duriyanandhan, V. (2005). “Lift and thrust characteristics of flapping wing micro air vehicle (MAV).” AIAA Pap.
Murphy, J. (2008). “Experimental investigation of biomimetic wing configurations for micro air vehicle applications.” Master of Science thesis, Aerospace Engineering, Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA.
Pennycuick, C. J. (2008). Modelling the flying bird, Academic Press, Waltham, MA.
Pfeiffer, A. T., Lee, J. S., Han, J. H., and Baier, H. (2010). “Ornithopter flight simulation based on flexible multi-body dynamics.” J. Bionic Eng., 7(1), 102–111.
Shyy, W., Berg, M., and Ljungqvist, D. (1999). “Flapping and flexible wings for biological and micro air vehicles.” Prog. Aerosp. Sci., 35(5), 455–505.
Shyy, W., Lian, Y., Tang, J., Viieru, D., and Liu, H. (2008). Aerodynamics of low Reynolds number flyers, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Smith, M. J., Wilkin, P. J., and Williams, M. H. (1996). “The advantages of an unsteady panel method in modelling the aerodynamic forces on rigid flapping wings.” J. Exp. Biol., 199, 1073–1083.
Vest, M. S., and Katz, J. (1996). “Unsteady aerodynamic model of flapping wings.” AIAA J., 34(7), 1435–1440.
Willis, D. J., Peraire, J., Drela, M., and White, J. K. (2006). “A numerical exploration of parameter dependence in power optimal flapping flight.” Proc., 24th Applied Aerodynamics Conf., San Francisco, CA.
Wilson, N. L., and Wereley, N. (2007). “Experimental investigation of flapping wing performance in hover.” 48th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conf.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 27, 2010
Published online: Jan 15, 2011
Accepted: May 19, 2011
Published in print: Jan 1, 2012
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.