The Aerodynamics of Compliant Membrane Wings Modeled on Mammalian Flight Mechanics

Galvão, R. M. O.; Israeli, Emily; Song, Arnold; Tian, Xinliang; Bishop, Kristin L.; Swartz, Sharon M.; Breuer, Kenneth

doi:10.2514/6.2006-2866

Cited by 55 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The DIC-technique is widely used in experimental mechanics, allowing sub-pixel accuracy due to grey value interpolation schemes over the interrogation grid (Schreier et al, 2000). The results agree with previous studies, applying DIC on membrane wings (Rojratsirikul et al, 2011;Galvao et al, 2006;Stanford et al, 2014).…”

Section: Deformation Measurementsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…At low to moderate angles-of-attack, the dynamics of membrane wings come at a price. The aerodynamic efficiency of membrane wings is found to be restricted in comparison to rigid flat plates due to higher drag penalties (Timpe et al, 2013;Galvao et al, 2006;Bleischwitz et al, 2015b). Recent attempts focused on active control of membrane wing performance by the use of electroactive membranes, allowing to gain control over mean camber adjustment or even modulating membrane vibrations (Curet et al, 2014;Hays et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aeromechanics of membrane and rigid wings in and out of ground-effect at moderate Reynolds numbers

Bleischwitz

Kat

Ganapathisubramani

2016

Journal of Fluids and Structures

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Wind tunnel experiments are conducted using membrane wings and rigid flat-plates in ground-effect at a moderate Reynolds number of Re = 56,000 with ground clearances from 1% to 200% chord length measured from their trailing-edge. A six-axis load-cell captures time-resolved forces and moment while time-resolved stereo digital image correlation (DIC) measurements are performed to capture membrane motions. The lift and drag coefficients of the rigid wing in ground-effect follow well-established trends while the membrane wing appears to exhibit improved coefficients and efficiency (compared to the rigid wing) when in ground-effect. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is applied to study the spatiotemporal structure of membrane vibrations. With increasing angles-ofattack and/or decreasing heights above ground, mode shapes of membrane deformation are dominated by large-scale fluctuations that have a smaller number of local extrema along the chord. Ground-effect induces modifications to the membrane deformation, which appear to be similar to the modifications induced by increasing angles-of-attack in free-flight. At high angles-of-attack in free-flight or at moderate angles in ground-effect, two POD modes of membrane fluctuations are found to be sufficient to capture 90% of all membrane deformations. Under these conditions, a membrane deformation with maximum camber near the trailing edge of the membrane wing is found to correlate with high lift, low drag and a nose down pitching moment. The extrema in membrane deformations and lift and drag forces occur simultaneously, while there is a time-lag between the deformation and the pitching moment.

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Section: Deformation Measurementsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aeromechanics of membrane and rigid wings in and out of ground-effect at moderate Reynolds numbers

Bleischwitz

Kat

Ganapathisubramani

2016

Journal of Fluids and Structures

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“…Bats, on the other hand, have an extremely high degree of articulation in the wing (the elbow, wrist, and finger joints). More relevant to the present study is the fact that the wing surface in bats is composed of a thin flexible membrane [5][6][7][8]. This observation suggests that a potentially useful feature for engineered maneuverable MAVs might be the incorporation of flexible membranes as lifting surfaces.…”

mentioning

confidence: 86%

Flexible-Membrane Airfoils at Low Reynolds Numbers

Tamai

Murphy

2008

Journal of Aircraft

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An experimental study was conducted to assess the benefits of using flexible-membrane airfoils/wings at low Reynolds numbers for micro air vehicle applications compared with using a conventional rigid airfoil/wing. In addition to measuring aerodynamic forces acting on flexible-membrane airfoils/wings, a high-resolution particle image velocimetry system was used to conduct flowfield measurements to quantify the transient behavior of vortex and turbulent flow structures around the flexible-membrane airfoils/wings to elucidate the associated underlying fundamental physics. The aerodynamic force measurements revealed that flexible-membrane airfoils could provide better aerodynamic performance compared with their rigid counterpart at low Reynolds numbers. The flexibility (or rigidity) of the membrane skins of the airfoils was found to greatly affect their aerodynamic performance. Particle image velocimetry measurements elucidated that flexible-membrane airfoils could change their camber (i.e., crosssectional shape) automatically to adapt incoming flows to balance the pressure differences on the upper and lower surfaces of the airfoils, therefore suppressing flow separation on the airfoil upper surfaces. Meanwhile, deformation of the flexible-membrane skins was found to cause significant airfoil trailing-edge deflection (i.e., lift the airfoil trailing edge up from its original designed position), which resulted in a reduction of the effective angles of attack of the flexible-membrane airfoils, thereby delaying airfoil stall at high angles of attack. The nonuniform spanwise deformation of the flexible-membrane skins of the flexible-membrane airfoils was found to significantly affect the characteristics of vortex and turbulent flow structures around the flexible-membrane airfoils.

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“…The wing deformation prevents flow separation and enhances lift-to-drag ratios. Other studies by Galvao et al, 5 Song et al, 6 Song et al, 7 Song and Breuer…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leading and Trailing Edge Effects on the Aerodynamic Performance of Compliant Aerofoils

Arbos-Torrent

Pang

Ganapathisubramani

et al. 2011

49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition

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The geometry of the rigid leading and trailing edges that hold the membrane could affect the aeromechanic performance of membrane wings. In this study the interaction between the supports and a membrane aerofoil is explored. Tests are performed at low Reynolds numbers, Re = 9×10 4 , and incidences of 2 • -22• . Four different leading and trailing edge geometries have been analysed focusing on the unsteady characteristics of the wake and the structural vibration of the membrane. Results indicate that the wake's shedding frequency is dependent on membrane's support geometry for low angles of attack (α), but is independent for higher values of α. Moreover, it has been found that the aeroelastic coupling between vortex shedding and membrane vibration interact, exciting the natural frequency modes of the membrane support. Hence, the results suggest that the leading and trailing edge geometry plays a crucial role on the overall performance of the membrane aerofoil.

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The Aerodynamics of Compliant Membrane Wings Modeled on Mammalian Flight Mechanics

Cited by 55 publications

References 10 publications

Aeromechanics of membrane and rigid wings in and out of ground-effect at moderate Reynolds numbers

Aeromechanics of membrane and rigid wings in and out of ground-effect at moderate Reynolds numbers

Flexible-Membrane Airfoils at Low Reynolds Numbers

Leading and Trailing Edge Effects on the Aerodynamic Performance of Compliant Aerofoils

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