Design of Flexible Wing for Flapping Flight by Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis

Abstract

We investigated some configurations of middle-size and high-aspect ratio wings for flapping flight by fluid-structure interaction simulation. Mimicking the flapping flight of insects is a useful method of microrobot motion. Its comprehensive unsteady aerodynamics has gradually been unraveled and several types of flapping-flight robots have been proposed. We examined the motion of a dragonfly, and try to apply it to microrobots. In designing such nimble flapping flight, adequate evaluation of the deformation of the wing is unavoidable. Wings of such species have high aspect ratio because a small momentum of inertia around the longitudinal axis is a great advantage in controlling. Such a slender wing is easy to twist around the longitudinal direction. Thus, in order to design such a wing, the wing behavior caused by interaction with the airflow must be analyzed, and the adequate stiffness must be determined. We designed two types of wings based on the architecture of the dragonfly’s wing, and examined the performance of the wings by fluid-structure interaction analysis. Here we show some examples of the designs and the performance of the wings for hovering, as the results of the first trial.