Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to experimentally analyze the effect of wing shape of various insects of different species in a flapping micro aerial vehicle (MAV).
Design/methodology/approach
Six different wings are fabricated for the MAV configuration, which is restricted to the size of 15 cm length and width; all wings have different surface area and constant span length of 6 cm. The force is being measured with the help of a force-sensing resistor (FSR), and the coefficients of lift were calculated and compared.
Findings
This study shows that the wing “Tipula sp” has better value of lift than other insect wings, except for the negative angle of attacks. The wing “Aeshna multicolor” gives the better values of lift in negative angles of attack.
Practical implications
This paper lays the foundation for the development of flapping MAVs with the insect wings. This type of wing can be used for spying purpose in the military zone and also can be used to survey remote and dangerous places where humans cannot enter.
Originality/value
This paper covers all basic insect wing configurations of different species with exact mimics of the veins. As the experimental investigation was carried for different angle of attacks, velocities and flapping frequencies, this paper can be used as reference for future flapping wing MAV developers.
The application of bio-mimetic in Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV) is a developing field and has enormous applications in the aviation industry. In this work, experimental investigation of the insect like MAV having flapping wing is discussed. The iphiclus-egensis-aile flexible wing and the nearctic-ceratopogonidae flexible wing were chosen for this study. Values of the coefficient of lift for the unsteady aerodynamics were converted to normalized frequency domain using Welch power spectral density method at various flapping frequencies and Reynolds number. The wing tip vortices were captured using laser visualization technique and further the images were processed using MATLAB. Experimental investigations were carried out in wind tunnel for various velocities and Angle of Attack (AoA) and the results were obtained using digital six component balancing system. Detailed study of both the results shows that the nearctic-ceratopogonidae flexible wing has better lifting properties than the iphiclus-egensis-aile flexible wing at low flapping frequencies and low AoA. For higher flapping frequencies and high AoA, the latter shows better lifting properties than the former.
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