Wing twist and folding work in synergy to propel flapping wing animals and robots

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Fan, Xiaozhou, Gehrke, Alexander, Breuer, Kenneth
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Fan, Xiaozhou
Gehrke, Alexander
Breuer, Kenneth
author_facet Fan, Xiaozhou
Gehrke, Alexander
Breuer, Kenneth
contents We designed and built a three degrees-of-freedom (DOF) flapping wing robot, Flapperoo, to study the aerodynamic benefits of wing folding and twisting. Forces and moments of this physical model are measured in wind tunnel tests over a Strouhal number range of St = 0.2 - 0.4, typical for animal flight. We perform particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements to visualize the air jet produced by wing clapping under the ventral side of the body when wing folding is at the extreme. The results show that this jet can be directed by controlling the wing twist at the moment of clapping, which leads to greatly enhanced cycle-averaged thrust, especially at high St or low flight speeds. Additional benefits of more thrust and less negative lift are gained during upstroke using wing twist. Remarkably, less total actuating force, or less total power, is required during upstroke with wing twist. These findings emphasize the benefits of critical wing articulation for the future flapping wing/fin robots and for an accurate test platform to study natural flapping wing flight or underwater vehicles.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_15577
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Wing twist and folding work in synergy to propel flapping wing animals and robots
Fan, Xiaozhou
Gehrke, Alexander
Breuer, Kenneth
Fluid Dynamics
Biological Physics
We designed and built a three degrees-of-freedom (DOF) flapping wing robot, Flapperoo, to study the aerodynamic benefits of wing folding and twisting. Forces and moments of this physical model are measured in wind tunnel tests over a Strouhal number range of St = 0.2 - 0.4, typical for animal flight. We perform particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements to visualize the air jet produced by wing clapping under the ventral side of the body when wing folding is at the extreme. The results show that this jet can be directed by controlling the wing twist at the moment of clapping, which leads to greatly enhanced cycle-averaged thrust, especially at high St or low flight speeds. Additional benefits of more thrust and less negative lift are gained during upstroke using wing twist. Remarkably, less total actuating force, or less total power, is required during upstroke with wing twist. These findings emphasize the benefits of critical wing articulation for the future flapping wing/fin robots and for an accurate test platform to study natural flapping wing flight or underwater vehicles.
title Wing twist and folding work in synergy to propel flapping wing animals and robots
topic Fluid Dynamics
Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.15577