Effect of chordwise deformation on unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms in hovering flapping flight

A three-dimensional simulation of hovering flapping wings was performed using an immersed boundary method. This was done to investigate the effects of chordwise wing deformation on three important unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms found in flapping flight, namely Leading Edge Vortex (LEV) shedding, wake capture and clap and fling. A wing was...

Numerical simulation of 'X-wing' type biplane flapping wings in 3D using the Immersed Boundary Method (IBM)

The numerical simulation of a “X-wing” type biplane flapping wings, has been performed in 3D using the Immersed Boundary Method (IBM). This “X-wing” type flapping configuration draws its inspiration from Delfly [1], a family of ornithopters developed by the Delft University of Technology, as shown in Figure 1. The unique “X-wing” design features...

Analysis of biplane flapping flight with tail

Numerical simulations have been performed to examine the interference effects between an upstream flapping biplane airfoil arrangement and a downstream stationary tail at a Reynolds number of 1000, which is around the regime of small flapping micro aerial vehicles. The objective is to investigate the effect of the relative distance and angle of...