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Effect of wing-offset on thrust produced by flapping wings

Loan Thi Kim Au, Vu Hoang Phan, Quang Le Phan, Hoon Cheol Park

Abstract


To generate appropriate forces for different flight modes, insects actively adjust their wing kinematics. In our insect-mimicking flapping wing system (FWS), the wing kinematics is determined by changing the wing root position, i.e. wing-offset. The objective of this paper is to clarify the effect of wing-offset on the aerodynamic forces produced by the FWS. For this purpose, the vertical force (thrust), which is to sustain the system’s weight, and the input power were experimentally measured for various wing-offsets. The study revealed that the wing-offset of 15% wing mean chord demonstrated the best thrust, whereas the wing-offset of 20% wing mean chord yielded the best thrust-to-input power ratio. The experimental data were validated with the unsteady blade element theory (UBET). The numerical study was also used to explain why the specific wing-offset could show such characteristics.

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21535%2FProICIUS.2014.v10.286

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