A Simulation Environment for Aerodynamic Analysis and Design of Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles

The work proposed here aims to develop a combined simulation and experimental capability to enhance the understanding of unsteady wing aerodynamics of flapping micro air vehicles (MAVs) and to assist in design and control of such vehicles. The overall goal is to use an advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver in conjunction with experiments for this purpose. Specifically, we aim to study the fluid physics associated with low Reynolds number flapping wings, including the fluid/structure and flight mechanism problems, to facilitate the design of effective high-bandwidth control of wing beat kinematics for MAVs. The overall proposed effort (for Phase I and Phase II) will be aimed at building a fundamental knowledge base for the physics of flapping wing Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) including the newer “Nano” subclass called the NAVs. The proposed work will have two major components: (a) a simulation environment based on an advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solver, and (b) an experimental database to validate the simulations and to guide model development.