On the unsteady aerodynamics of flapping wings under dynamic hovering kinematics

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Poletti, Romain, Calado, Andre, Koloszar, Lilla K., Degroote, Joris, Mendez, Miguel A.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Poletti, Romain
Calado, Andre
Koloszar, Lilla K.
Degroote, Joris
Mendez, Miguel A.
author_facet Poletti, Romain
Calado, Andre
Koloszar, Lilla K.
Degroote, Joris
Mendez, Miguel A.
contents Hummingbirds and insects achieve outstanding flight performance by adapting their flapping motion to the flight requirements. Their wing kinematics can change from smooth flapping to highly dynamic waveforms, generating unsteady aerodynamic phenomena such as leading-edge vortices (LEV), rotational circulation, wing wake capture, and added mass. This article uncovers the interactions of these mechanisms in the case of a rigid semi-elliptical wing undergoing aggressive kinematics in the hovering regime at $Re\sim \mathcal{O}(10^3)$. The flapping kinematics were parametrized using smoothed steps and triangular functions and the flow dynamics were simulated by combining the overset method with Large Eddy Simulations (LES). The analysis of the results identifies an initial acceleration phase and a cruising phase. During the former, the flow is mostly irrotational and governed by the added mass effect. The added mass was shown to be responsible for a lift first peak due to the strong flapping acceleration. The dynamic pitching and the wing wake interaction generate a second lift peak due to a downwash flow and a vortex system on the proximal and distal parts of the wing's pressure side. Conversely, aerodynamic forces in the cruising phase are mainly governed by the growth and the establishment of the LEV. Finally, the leading flow structures in each phase and their impact on the aerodynamic forces were isolated using the extended Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_03222
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the unsteady aerodynamics of flapping wings under dynamic hovering kinematics
Poletti, Romain
Calado, Andre
Koloszar, Lilla K.
Degroote, Joris
Mendez, Miguel A.
Fluid Dynamics
Hummingbirds and insects achieve outstanding flight performance by adapting their flapping motion to the flight requirements. Their wing kinematics can change from smooth flapping to highly dynamic waveforms, generating unsteady aerodynamic phenomena such as leading-edge vortices (LEV), rotational circulation, wing wake capture, and added mass. This article uncovers the interactions of these mechanisms in the case of a rigid semi-elliptical wing undergoing aggressive kinematics in the hovering regime at $Re\sim \mathcal{O}(10^3)$. The flapping kinematics were parametrized using smoothed steps and triangular functions and the flow dynamics were simulated by combining the overset method with Large Eddy Simulations (LES). The analysis of the results identifies an initial acceleration phase and a cruising phase. During the former, the flow is mostly irrotational and governed by the added mass effect. The added mass was shown to be responsible for a lift first peak due to the strong flapping acceleration. The dynamic pitching and the wing wake interaction generate a second lift peak due to a downwash flow and a vortex system on the proximal and distal parts of the wing's pressure side. Conversely, aerodynamic forces in the cruising phase are mainly governed by the growth and the establishment of the LEV. Finally, the leading flow structures in each phase and their impact on the aerodynamic forces were isolated using the extended Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD).
title On the unsteady aerodynamics of flapping wings under dynamic hovering kinematics
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.03222