Investigation of flight of micro aerial vehicle with flapping wings
2014
Chaouki, A.A., Riga Technical Univ. (Latvia) | Viba, J., Riga Technical Univ. (Latvia)
Micro aerial vehicles design represents a challenge that lasted for years and the fact that they operate in a low Reynolds range, which make the unsteady aerodynamic effect more influential, made the direct computational fluid dynamics simulation expensive in time and money, and an alternative method especially in the early phase of the design would be very beneficial and rentable. In this work, the flight of a flapping wings operated micro aerial vehicle is investigated by the simulation of the mechanical equations of motion to have an approximation of the motion behaviour and the flying condition of the vehicle, at the same time this model can be electronically implemented to make the MAV auto-controlled by imposing some criteria. The equations were developed in a cylindrical coordinates system, and simulated using the software Mathcad, and some of the constants related to the size of the vehicle are changed to match different range of existing flying animals from insects to birds, a concept of two different drag coefficients was used successfully to model the flapping wing. It was found that for smaller sizes and higher flapping frequency, the model does not fly, however for a bigger vehicle, and a simplification of parameters, it gave good approximation, and the model can be used for auto- control by a predefined flying path. Beside the main simulation work a small experimentation on a model wing covered in feather was conducted in a subsonic wind tunnel in order to present a practical alternative that economize energy by reducing the drag in upstroke.
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