NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF MAVs FLAPPING WINGS IN UNSTEADY CONDITIONS

Today, Flapping Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV) are used in many different applications. Reynolds Number for this kind of aerial vehicle is about 104 ~ 105 which shows dominancy of inertial effects in comparison of viscous effects in flow field except adjacent of the solid boundaries. Due to periodic flapping stroke, fluid flow is unsteady. In addition, these creatures have some complexities in kinematic modeling. Although numerical methods are widely used for unsteady aerodynamic problems, it is highly difficult to solve the full 3D Navier–Stokes equations for complex flows like the ones of the flapping insect wings. Actually, the numerical simulation of flapping wings for different conditions of flapping frequencies and wing shapes has not been done yet. This is done in the present study. In present study, a computer code based on the unsteady Panel Method has been developed for flow analysis. The prepared algorithm and the computer code are capable of modeling MAVs flapping wings in different unsteady conditions. The results of aerodynamic design coefficients have been drew. At the end the optimum wing shape and flapping frequency are chosen as another result of this study.