Unsteady Aerodynamics of Flapping Wings
ZHANG LIUHANG
ZHANG LIUHANG
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Abstract
The three dimensional SVD-GFD based numerical scheme is further developed and adapted for the study of the unsteady three-dimensional aerodynamics of insect flapping wing flight. A systematic morphological and kinematic model of insect flapping wings is developed and presented. The simple harmonic motion and trapezoidal function based kinematic models are compared and an optimal flapping kinematics is derived for MAV design reference. The three-dimensional numerical study of clap-and-fling flapping motion identifies key unsteady aerodynamic effects that lead to lift enhancement by this mechanism. The dependence of lift augmentation on wing-tip and wing-root separation distance was investigated. An alternative parameterisation of flapping wing kinematics was presented, and the effects of individual parameters on mean aerodynamic forces and moments are determined. A simple linearized model is proposed as the starting point for the development of a preliminary control model for flapping wing flight.
Keywords
unsteady aerodynamics, flapping wing, insect flight, clap and fling, SVD-GFD, kinematic parameter
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2013-08-01
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