Investigation of the aerodynamic performance and flow physics on cross sections of Dragonfly wing on flapping and pitching motion in low Reynolds number

Author(s):  
Roham Lavimi ◽  
Mohammad Hojaji ◽  
Mojtaba Dehghan Manshadi

In this research, the flow physics and aerodynamic performance of dragonfly cross sections, used in Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs), in low Reynolds are investigated. The main objective of the research is to study the performance of dragonfly wing cross-sections flapping motion in Reynolds 5000 and 10,000. Pitching motion is one of the most important mechanisms in force lifting generation, and the effects of Reynolds number and mean angle of attack on aerodynamic coefficients have been extensively investigated for the pitching motion. In the present study, the geometry of two cross sections of dragonfly was extracted. Incompressible, two-dimensional and unsteady Navier–Stokes equations have been used to simulate the flow. k − ɛ RNG model was used for turbulence modeling. To simulate the wing pitching motion, the dynamic mesh method was used. The results showed that in flapping motion, pitching-up rotation has caused a rapid increase in lift coefficient. Furthermore, it was found that the absence of stall does not increase the lift and drag coefficients, while formation of new strong vorticity layers have caused an increase in lift coefficient. On the other hand, corrugations on the cross sections of the dragonfly in the pitching motion cause the delay of separation and increasing the lift coefficient. In flapping motion and the pitching motion, the lift coefficients of three cross sections were increased due to stronger vorticity layers by reducing the Reynolds number. Due to the existence of corrugations, the first and the second cross sections have good aerodynamic performance, compared to the flat plate. The comparison carried out in the current research showed that the second cross section is a proper replacement for the flat plate in MAVs.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. D. DWIVEDI ◽  
Vasishta BHARGAVA ◽  
P. M. V. RAO ◽  
Donepudi JAGADEESH

Corrugations are folds on a surface as found on wings of dragon fly insects. Although they fly at relatively lower altitudes its wings are adapted for better aerodynamic and aero-elastic characteristics. In the present work, three airfoil geometries were studied using the 2-D panel method to evaluate the aerodynamic performance for low Reynolds number. The experiments were conducted in wind tunnel for incompressible flow regime to demonstrate the coefficients of lift drag and glide ratio at two Reynolds numbers 1.9x104 and 1.5x105 and for angles of attack ranging between 00 and 160. The panel method results have been validated using the current and existing experiment data as well as with the computational work from cited literature. A good agreement between the experimental and the panel methods were found for low angles of attack. The results showed that till 80 angle of attack higher lift coefficient and lower drag coefficient are obtainable for corrugated airfoils as compared to NACA 0010. The validation of surface pressure coefficients for all three airfoils using the panel method at 40 angles of attack was done. The contours of the non-dimensional pressure and velocity are illustrated from -100 to 200 angles of attack. A good correlation between the experiment data and the computational methods revealed that the corrugated airfoils exhibit better aerodynamic performance than NACA 0010.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (14n16) ◽  
pp. 2040112
Author(s):  
Jian-Hua Xu ◽  
Wen-Ping Song ◽  
Zhong-Hua Han ◽  
Zi-Hao Zhao

High-subsonic and low-Reynolds-number flow is a special aerodynamic problem associated with near space propellers and Mars aircrafts. The flow around airfoils and the corresponding aerodynamic performance are different from the incompressible flow at low-Reynolds-number, due to complex shock wave-laminar separation bubble interaction. The objective of this paper is to figure out the effect of Mach number on aerodynamic performance and special flow structure of airfoil. An in-house Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes solver coupled with [Formula: see text] transition model is employed to simulate the flows around the E387 airfoil. The results show that the lift slope is larger than [Formula: see text] in the linear region. No stall occurs even at an attack angle of [Formula: see text]. With increase of Mach number, lift coefficient decreases when attack angle is below [Formula: see text]. However, once the angle of attack exceeds [Formula: see text], higher Mach number corresponds to higher lift coefficient. In addition, the strength and number of shock waves are very sensitive to Mach number. With increase of Mach number, the region of reverse flow vortex near transition location becomes smaller and finally disappears, while a new reverse flow vortex appears near the trailing edge and becomes larger.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 168781401988416
Author(s):  
Mahmoud E Abd El-Latief ◽  
Khairy Elsayed ◽  
Mohamed Madbouli Abdelrahman

In this study, Aeshna cyanea dragonfly forewing mid-cross-section corrugated airfoil was simulated at ultra-low Reynolds number. The corrugated airfoil was compared with its smooth counterpart to study the effect of the corrugations upon the aerodynamic performance. Unsteady two-dimensional laminar flow was solved using FLUENT. This study was divided into gliding phase and flapping phase. In the gliding phase, the corrugated airfoil produced a higher lift force with respect to the profiled airfoil at both tested Reynolds numbers ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) with comparable drag coefficient for all the tested angles of attack. In the flapping phase, both the corrugated airfoil and the flat-plate have a very similar flow behavior which yields a very similar aerodynamic performance at Re[Formula: see text]. A structural analysis was performed to compare the corrugated airfoil with the flat-plate. The analysis revealed the superiority of the corrugated airfoil over the flat-plate in decreasing the deflection under the applied load. The reduced frequency was varied to study its impact on the aerodynamic performance. By increasing the reduced frequency, the thrust and the lift forces increased by [Formula: see text]% and [Formula: see text]%, respectively. Any increase in the reduced frequency will increase lift and thrust forces, but the propulsive efficiency will deteriorate.


Author(s):  
Sadid Salajegheh ◽  
Mehran Tadjfar

Here we study the flapping of a dragonfly’s wing section where the frequency of the wing flapping is about 25–30 HZ. We have translational and rotational velocities in a single stroke. In this article we investigate dragonfly’s 2D sections and we want to study the effect of the corrugations during unsteady flight at low Reynolds number. We find that in contrast to the published results for steady flow over the wings, where the corrugation seems to have improved the performance over a profiled wing-section, here a simple flat plate seems to perform better than the corrugated one. However, the corrugated wing-sections have a better aerodynamic performance than the traditional profiled wing-sections. The flow Reynolds number in this study is 8000.


Author(s):  
R. Deeksha ◽  
Mahesh K. Varpe

Abstract Wind energy has become one of the vital sustainable energy resources and a leading contender to the renewable resources race. The need of extending the aerodynamic performance of a wind turbine paved the way for radical approaches in the design of wind turbine blades. One such promising technique is the adoption of passive flow controls like leading edge protuberance or tubercles. In this paper the aerodynamic performance of NACA0009 (baseline) superimposed with a leading edge protuberance is numerically investigated in the post-stall operating conditions. The investigation objective was to identify the optimum pitch to amplitude ratio of the protuberance in the post stall operating condition for a low Reynolds number of 5 × 104. Computational fluid dynamics computations were performed using κ-ω SST turbulence model. The optimum pitch to amplitude ratio was found to be 6 which enhanced the aerodynamic lift coefficient by 42% in the post stall operating condition. The lift is reduced at lower AOA but gets complement in the post stall operating conditions.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 15-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Bolló

Abstract The two-dimensional flow around a stationary heated circular cylinder at low Reynolds numbers of 50 < Re < 210 is investigated numerically using the FLUENT commercial software package. The dimensionless vortex shedding frequency (St) reduces with increasing temperature at a given Reynolds number. The effective temperature concept was used and St-Re data were successfully transformed to the St-Reeff curve. Comparisons include root-mean-square values of the lift coefficient and Nusselt number. The results agree well with available data in the literature.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajit Pal Singh ◽  
S. H. Winoto ◽  
D. A. Shah ◽  
K. G. Lim ◽  
Robert E. K. Goh

Abstract Performance characteristics of some low Reynolds number airfoils for the use in micro air vehicles (MAVs) are computationally studied using XFOIL at a Reynolds number of 80,000. XFOIL, which is based on linear-vorticity stream function panel method coupled with a viscous integral formulation, is used for the analysis. In the first part of the study, results obtained from the XFOIL have been compared with available experimental data at low Reynolds numbers. XFOIL is then used to study relative aerodynamic performance of nine different airfoils. The computational analysis has shown that the S1223 airfoil has a relatively better performance than other airfoils considered for the analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Xiaohua Zou ◽  
Mingsheng Ling ◽  
Wenzheng Zhai

With the development of flight technology, the need for stable aerodynamic and vibration performance of the aircraft in the civil and military fields has gradually increased. In this case, the requirements for aerodynamic and vibration characteristics of the aircraft have also been strengthened. The existing four-rotor aircraft carries limited airborne equipment and payload, while the current eight-rotor aircraft adopts a plane layout. The size of the propeller is generally fixed, including the load capacity. The upper and lower tower layout analyzed in this paper can effectively solve the problems of insufficient four-axis load and unstable aerodynamic and vibration performance of the existing eight-axis aircraft. This paper takes the miniature octorotor as the research object and studies the aerodynamic characteristics of the miniature octorotor at different low Reynolds numbers, different air pressures and thicknesses, and the lift coefficient and lift-to-drag ratio, as well as the vibration under different elastic moduli and air pressure characteristics. The research algorithm adopted in this paper is the numerical method of fluid-solid cohesion and the control equation of flow field analysis. The research results show that, with the increase in the Reynolds number within a certain range, the aerodynamic characteristics of the miniature octorotor gradually become better. When the elastic modulus is 2.5 E, the aircraft’s specific performance is that the lift increases, the critical angle of attack increases, the drag decreases, the lift-to-drag ratio increases significantly, and the angle of attack decreases. However, the transition position of the flow around the airfoil surface is getting closer to the leading edge, and its state is more likely to transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow. When the unidirectional carbon fiber-reinforced thickness is 0.2 mm and the thin arc-shaped airfoil with the convex structure has a uniform thickness of 2.5% and a uniform curvature of 4.5%, the aerodynamic and vibration characteristics of the octorotor aircraft are most beneficial to flight.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastav Borah ◽  
Anand Verma ◽  
Vinayak Kulkarni ◽  
Ujjwal K. Saha

Abstract Vortex shedding phenomenon leads to a number of different features such as flow induced vibrations, fluid mixing, heat transfer and noise generation. With respect to aerodynamic application, the intensity of vortex shedding and the size of vortices play an essential role in the generation of lift and drag forces on an airfoil. The flat plates are known to have a better lift-to-drag ratio than conventional airfoils at low Reynolds number (Re). A better understanding of the shedding behavior will help aerodynamicists to implement flat plates at low Re specific applications such as fixed-wing micro air vehicle (MAV). In the present study, the shedding of vortices in the wake of a flat plate at low incidence has been studied experimentally in a low-speed subsonic wind tunnel at a Re of 5 × 104. The velocity field in the wake of the plate is measured using a hot wire anemometer. These measurements are taken at specific points in the wake across the flow direction and above the suction side of the flat plate. The velocity field is found to oscillate with one dominant frequency of fluctuation. The Strouhal number (St), calculated from this frequency, is computed for different angles of attack (AoA). The shedding frequency of vortices from the trailing edge of the flat plate has a general tendency to increase with AoA. In this paper, the generation and subsequent shedding of leading edge and trailing edge vortices in the wake of a flat plate are discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document