Experimental investigation on flow characteristics of a four-wing micro air vehicle

Shi, Lisong; Uy, Chunkit; Huang, Shih K.; Yang, Zifeng; Huang, Gaofeng; Wen, Chih-Yung

doi:10.1177/1756829316667770

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…A strong relationship between the lift force and the flapping frequency has also been validated by both the four-wing and the two-wing MAVs designed by our laboratory. 26 However, high flapping frequency is directly related to the high power consumption. Considering the aerodynamic power, P , only (neglecting the inertial power) where M is the aerodynamic moment and Ω is the angular velocity.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of lift force for a bio-inspired flapping wing model in hovering flight

Zhang

Wen

Yang

2016

International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

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The lift force is an important component that affects the aerodynamic performance of bio-inspired flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles. However, there is a lack of endeavors in the optimization of the flapping wing parameters that affect the lift force of micro aerial vehicles. This research is therefore to establish a methodology that combines computational fluid dynamic simulation for the evaluation of the lift generation and wing parameters. The Taguchi's framework for design of experiments, combined with the computational fluid dynamics simulations, is performed on a simplified robotic fly wing model used in the experiment found in Dickinson et al. (1999), under the hovering flight mode, to identify the most influential parameters on the lift generation of micro aerial vehicles. A commercial computational fluid dynamics code, ANSYS/FLUENT, along with a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver is used to simulate the unsteady flow field. With the optimization of the time-averaged lift force as the optimization objective, five typical parameters (flapping frequency, maximum angle of attacks during the upstroke and downstroke motions, stroke amplitude, and rotation type) in the flapping trajectory equation are selected as the input factors with each having four levels. Specific computational fluid dynamics cases are simulated in accordance with the chosen orthogonal arrays. By conducting statistical analyses with analyses of means and variance, the flapping frequency and the stroke amplitude are determined to be the two most influential parameters. The response surface of the time-averaged lift force and the power consumption contour are constructed with respect to these two parameters to determine the optimal combination for the generation of lift forces under a specific power constrain and provide a guideline for bio-inspired micro aerial vehicle designs.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of lift force for a bio-inspired flapping wing model in hovering flight

Zhang

Wen

Yang

2016

International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

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“…2 In the past decade, autonomous systems like drones have received more attention, which has led to the development of different classes and configurations of these flying robots with a broad spectrum of applications. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Recently, due to the increasing demands for intelligence missions, small drones including micro, nano, and pico air vehicles (MAV, NAV, and PAV) are being developed. 12 To this end, there is a serious effort to design and fabricate drones that are very small and are able to perform special indoor or outdoor missions and have resulted in the development of different types of small drones with various shapes and flight modes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sizing process, aerodynamic analysis, and experimental assessment of a biplane flapping wing nano air vehicle

Ghommem

Hassanalian

Al-Marzooqi

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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The design, manufacturing, experimentation, performance analysis, and flight test for a biplane flapping wing nano air vehicle, capable of both forward and hovering flight are presented. To design this nano air vehicle, a comprehensive sizing method based on theoretical and statistical analyses is proposed and experimentally verified. Then, aerodynamic analyses based on quasi-steady and strip theory methods are conducted to select the optimum values for the kinematics. To evaluate the proposed conceptual design obtained from the sizing methodology and aerodynamic analyses, an experimental setup deploying strain gauges mounted on a thin aluminum plate is implemented. This setup is also deployed to identify the wing configuration resulting in the highest thrust generation and lowest power consumption. The experimental results are found in a good agreement with the aerodynamic simulations. To ensure the stability of the air vehicle and a smooth transition between the different flying modes, magnetic coils are mounted on the tail to actuate the elevator and rudder. A flight test was successfully performed indoor to demonstrate the flying capabilities of the air vehicle and the camera showed a clear visual inspection of the area. It showed stable behavior especially during the transition from forward flight to hovering and superior flight endurance in comparison to similar air vehicles reported in the literature. The proposed and applied design methodologies along with the manufacturing process are expected to provide useful guidelines to design and manufacture different types of flapping wings to support various applications.

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Propeller Slipstream Effect on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Micro Air Vehicle at Low Reynolds Number

Chen

Yang

2022

Applied Sciences

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A numerical investigation on propeller-induced flow effects in tractor configurations on a Zimmerman wing-fuselage using the cambered thin airfoil is presented in this paper. The Reynolds number based on the mean aerodynamic chord was 1.3 × 105. Significant aerodynamic performance benefits could be found for a propeller in the tractor configuration. The numerical results showed that the propeller slipstream effect on the wings was highly dependent on the size of the propeller, and the major slipstream effect was working at 60% inboard wingspan, whereas less effects were observed towards the wingtip. The propeller slipstream increased the local angle of attack on the up-going blade side. This effect simultaneously augmented the section lift. The unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations helped to improve understanding of the interaction of the propeller wake and the wing-fuselage, which is an important aspect to guide the design of future efficient and controllable micro air vehicles. The results indicated that, in MAV designs, the slipstream from the propeller had a significant effect on the wing aerodynamics, regarding both performance and stability of the vehicle.

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Experimental investigation on flow characteristics of a four-wing micro air vehicle

Cited by 3 publications

References 23 publications

Optimization of lift force for a bio-inspired flapping wing model in hovering flight

Optimization of lift force for a bio-inspired flapping wing model in hovering flight

Sizing process, aerodynamic analysis, and experimental assessment of a biplane flapping wing nano air vehicle

Propeller Slipstream Effect on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Micro Air Vehicle at Low Reynolds Number

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