Flapping Wing CFD/CSD Aeroelastic Formulation Based on a Co-rotational Shell Finite Element

Flexible flapping wings have garnered a large amount of attention within the micro aerial vehicle (MAV) community: a critical component of MAV flight is the coupling of aerodynamics and structural dynamics. This paper presents a computational framework for simulating shell-like wing structures flapping in incompressible flow at low Reynolds numbers in both hover and forward flight. The framework is developed by coupling an in-house co-rotational finite element structural dynamics solver suitable for small strain and large rotations, to an in-house pressure-based Navier-Stokes solver. The development of the computational structural dynamics (CSD) solver and its coupling with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver is discussed in detail. Validation studies are presented for both the CSD and the aeroelastic solvers using different wing configurations. Structural dynamics solutions are presented for rectangular wings with either a prescribed plunge or a single degree-of-freedom flapping motion. The aeroelastic response is computed for two different wing configurations: 1) a thin-plate rectangular aluminum wing (aspect ratio 6) undergoing a single-axis large amplitude flapping motion and 2) a rectangular wing of NACA0012 cross-section (aspect ratio 6) under a pure plunge motion. Results are validated against available experimental data and those obtained from a different aeroelasticity framework previously developed by the authors.