Design of a Flapping Wing for Application in a Micro Air Vehicle

Design of a Flapping Wing for Application in a Micro Air Vehicle

Narayanan, Anirudh (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)

Goosen, J.F.L. (mentor)
van Keulen, A. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Atalanta project

2019-09-27

The goal of this study is to understand the processes and wing characteristics that influence lift generation of a flapping wing, and apply the acquired knowledge in an optimization setting to obtain an optimal wing thickness distribution which maximizes effective wing lift. To achieve this, an extensive literature survey was conducted to identify geometrical characteristics of the wing that are known to help maximize wing lift, and loading conditions under which a given wing design must be numerically studied. Additionally, a cubic pressure load distribution was developed to approximately mimic the aerodynamic pressure acting on the surface of the wing. Changes were made to the research code, Charles, to achieve some of the desired features. Using some of the identified parameters and load cases, an optimization problem was formulated and thickness distributions were obtained for two wing planform shapes. The results were compared and discussed, and general patterns were identified which give insight on flapping wing design.

flapping wing
design
optimization
sensitivity analysis
micro air vehicles

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:52bf5feb-a7dd-4051-be66-63e7edece6c1

2021-09-27

Student theses

master thesis

© 2019 Anirudh Narayanan