Numerical simulations have been used to analyze the effect that vortices, shed from one flapping foil, have on the thrust of another flapping foil placed directly downstream. The simulations attempt to model the dorsal-tail fin interaction observed in a live bluegill sunfish by Drucker & Lauder using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The simulations have been carried out using a Cartesian grid ...

Inspired by superior flight performance of natural flight masters like birds and insects and based on the ventilating flaps that can be opened and closed by the changing air pressure around the wing, a new flapping wing type has been proposed. It is known that the net lift force generated by a solid wing in a flapping cycle is nearly zero. However, for the case of the ventilated wing, results f...

Numerical simulations are used to investigate the effect of aspect ratio on the wake topology and hydrodynamic performance of thin ellipsoidal flapping foils. The study is motivated by the quest to understand the hydrodynamics of fish pectoral fins. The simulations employ an immersed boundary method that allows us to simulate flows with complex moving boundaries on fixed Cartesian grids. A deta...

The aim of the article is the kinematic and geometric design of a flapping wing UAV, in order to develop an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, capable of executing reconnaissance and video-surveillance missions. To define the characteristic dimensions of the vehicle a biological study was initially carried out, analyzing, for example, the weight-wingspan ratio for the correct kinematics of the flight. On...

Aerodynamic performance and agility during flapping flight are determined by the combination of wing shape and kinematics. The degree of morphological and kinematic optimisation is unknown and depends upon a large parameter space. Aimed at providing an accurate and computationally inexpensive modelling tool for flapping-wing aerodynamics, we propose a novel CFD (computational fluid dynamics)-in...

Number of Papers published in peer-reviewed journals: Number of Papers published in non peer-reviewed journals: Unsteady Aerodynamics of Flapping Wings at Re=10.000 100,000 for Micro-Air Vehicles-Final Report Report Title The overall project goal was to investigate low Reynolds number (10,000-100,000) flapping flight for MAV applications. Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) is used for unsteady aerody...

Number of Papers published in peer-reviewed journals: Number of Papers published in non peer-reviewed journals: Unsteady Aerodynamics of Flapping Wings at Re=10.000 100,000 for Micro-Air Vehicles-Final Report Report Title The overall project goal was to investigate low Reynolds number (10,000-100,000) flapping flight for MAV applications. Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) is used for unsteady aerody...

Pressure measurements over flapping wings are less commonly available due to the difficulties associated with instrumenting them. This represents an important limitation of the aerodynamic data available for the development of self-contained flapping wing vehicle autopilots and for researchers working on the aerodynamics of bio-inspired flapping wings. This paper describes the design, construct...

The flight ability of animals is restricted by the scaling effects imposed by physical and physiological factors. In comparisons of the power available from muscle and the mechanical power required to fly, it is predicted that the margin between the powers should decrease with body size and that flying animals have a maximum body size. However, predicting the absolute value of this upper limit ...

While biological flyers often display deformed wing structures, the effects of flexibility on the flapping wing aerodynamics remain inadequately understood. We investigate the lift generation and phase dynamics of a flapping flexible wing in hover, between Reynolds number of 100 and 1000 corresponding to small insects, using fully coupled Navier-Stokes equation and linear beam model. The γ scal...