Drag force fault extension to evolutionary model consistency checking for a flapping-wing micro air vehicle

Author(s):  
John C. Gallagher ◽  
Monica Sam ◽  
Sanjay Boddhu ◽  
Eric T. Matson ◽  
Garrison Greenwood
2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 160746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hoang Vu Phan ◽  
Thi Kim Loan Au ◽  
Hoon Cheol Park

This study used numerical and experimental approaches to investigate the role played by the clap-and-fling mechanism in enhancing force generation in hovering insect-like two-winged flapping-wing micro air vehicle (FW-MAV). The flapping mechanism was designed to symmetrically flap wings at a high flapping amplitude of approximately 192°. The clap-and-fling mechanisms were thereby implemented at both dorsal and ventral stroke reversals. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model was constructed based on three-dimensional wing kinematics to estimate the force generation, which was validated by the measured forces using a 6-axis load cell. The computed forces proved that the CFD model provided reasonable estimation with differences less than 8%, when compared with the measured forces. The measurement indicated that the clap and flings at both the stroke reversals augmented the average vertical force by 16.2% when compared with the force without the clap-and-fling effect. In the CFD simulation, the clap and flings enhanced the vertical force by 11.5% and horizontal drag force by 18.4%. The observations indicated that both the fling and the clap contributed to the augmented vertical force by 62.6% and 37.4%, respectively, and to the augmented horizontal drag force by 71.7% and 28.3%, respectively. The flow structures suggested that a strong downwash was expelled from the opening gap between the trailing edges during the fling as well as the clap at each stroke reversal. In addition to the fling phases, the influx of air into the low-pressure region between the wings from the leading edges also significantly contributed to augmentation of the vertical force. The study conducted for high Reynolds numbers also confirmed that the effect of the clap and fling was insignificant when the minimum distance between the two wings exceeded 1.2c (c = wing chord). Thus, the clap and flings were successfully implemented in the FW-MAV, and there was a significant improvement in the vertical force.


ROBOT ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengcheng CHI ◽  
Weiping ZHANG ◽  
Wenyuan CHEN ◽  
Hongyi LI ◽  
Kun MENG ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenqing Yang ◽  
Liguang Wang ◽  
Bifeng Song

This paper describes the design and development of the Dove, a flapping-wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV), which was developed in Northwestern Polytechnical University. FWMAVs have attracted international attentions since the past two decades. Since some achievements have been obtained, such as the capability of supporting an air vehicle to fly, our research goal was to design an FWMAV that has the ability to accomplish a task. Main investigations were presented in this paper, including the flexible wing design, the flapping mechanism design, and the on-board avionics development. The current Dove has a mass of 220 g, a wingspan of 50 cm, and the ability of operating fully autonomously, flying lasts half an hour, and transmitting live stabilized color video to a ground station over 4 km away.


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