The flight profile of typical small unmanned air systems (UAS) has expanded in the last decade beyond those encountered by traditional fixed-wing transport and rotary-wing aircraft. These new flight conditions may involve unusual flight mechanics as with flapping wing flight or complex aerodynamics when performing difficult maneuvers as part of routine operations. Such scenarios typically invol...

Insect wings are flexible. For rigid wings lift enhancing unsteady aerodynamics mechanisms, such as delayed stall via leading-edge vortices (LEVs), wake-capture, and rotational forces, characterize the lift generation of a hovering insect. We have uncovered a novel mechanism that fruit fly size insects can utilize to further increase the lift by adjusting its wing shape passively: A pair of a L...

While the biological flyers often showcase high deformed wing structures, the effects of flexibility on the flapping wing aerodynamics remain inadequately understood. A major challenge in the study of flexible flapping wings is that the resulting wing motion is an outcome of a dynamic balance between the structural dynamics of the wing and the unsteady aerodynamics. Since the effective angle of...

The prediction accuracy of aeroelastic stability in fans and compressors depends crucially on the underlying aerodynamic predictions. prevalent approach field solves unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier—Stokes equations presence blade vibration. Given unsteady, three-dimensional often separated nature flow regimes interest, confidence URANS methods is questionable. This paper uses simple test case...

Birds demonstrate that flapping-wing flight (FWF) is a versatile flight mode, compatible with hovering, forward flight and gliding to save energy. This extended flight domain would be especially useful on mini-UAVs. However, design is challenging because aerodynamic efficiency is conditioned by complex movements of the wings, and because many interactions exist between morphological (wing area,...

The development of flapping-wing micro air vehicles (MAVs) demands a systematic exploration of the available design space to identify ways in which the unsteady mechanisms governing flapping-wing flight can best be utilized for producing optimal thrust or maneuverability. Mimicking the wing kinematics of biological flight requires examining the potential effects of wing morphology on flight per...

Birds demonstrate that flapping-wing flight (FWF) is a versatile flight mode, compatible with hovering, forward flight and gliding to save energy. This extended flight domain would be especially useful on mini-UAVs. However, design is challenging because aerodynamic efficiency is conditioned by complex movements of the wings, and because many interactions exist between morphological (wing area,...