Developing a FWNAV is an ambitious and arduous tasks relying currently mostly on trial and error method. In order to assist these developments, a preliminary design tool evaluating the aeroelastic performance of a flapping wing is sound. Our approach, coupling a structural finite element solver to a quasi-steady aerodynamic model, is here reported along with some of its applications: the select...

The present paper addresses the aeroelastic optimization of a membrane wing. Aerodynamic optimization of a deforming wing has been done in recent work by Walker, Patil, and Canfield. The deformation shapes required for maximum thrust and thrust efficiency were calculated. In the present work, the maximum thrust for the membrane wing is calculated by optimizing the tension in the membrane so tha...

The papers presents a new paradigm for understanding ßutter and ßapping ßight. The paradigm integrates aeroelastic interactions with applied and induced propulsive effects. The framework is based on conservation of energy. Energy produced, energy lost and/or work done due to structural vibration, aerodynamic wake and propulsion are taken into account. It is conclusively shown that there exist t...

Fluid-structural coupling occurs when microcantilever sensors vibrate in a fluid. Due to the complexity of the mechanical characteristics of microcantilevers and lack of high-precision microscopic mechanical testing instruments, effective methods for studying the fluid-structural coupling of microcantilevers are lacking, especially for non-rectangular microcantilevers. Here, we report fluid-str...

Joined-wing aircraft are being designed for ‘sensorcraft’ configuration. Joined wings lead to multiple load paths and constraints. The focus of this work is to understand the nonlinear structural as well as aeroelastic behavior of joined wings. The paper presents a formulation for the nonlinear aeroelastic analysis of joined wings. Results are presented for two joined wings configurations. Over...

With the trend of variable cross-sections for long-span bridges from truss-stiffened to quasi-streamlined, and then to multiple-box cross-section geometries, the importance of aeroelastic performance is becoming increasingly significant in wind-resistant design. This article shows that there is clearly insufficient qualitative as well as quantitative understanding of turbulence effects on bridg...

This paper investigates the possibility that an adaptive feedback controller can be designed and implemented for the suppression of aircraft’s structural vibration in the presence of any aeroelastic/aeroservoelastic interaction, instead of using the non-adaptive notching filters. Currently aircraft with non-adaptive control laws usually include roll-off or notch filters to avoid AE/ASE interact...

Aeroelastic two-dimensional wing section with both trailing-edge (TE) and leading-edge (LE) was investigated in this paper through numerical simulation in time domain. Structural stiffness and damping in pitch degree of freedom were represented by nonlinear polynomials. Open-loop limit cycle oscillation (LCO) characters of two examples were studied, and flutter boundaries with initial condition...

This paper presents an investigation into the controllability for an aircraft of seamless aeroelastic wing. The research is aimed at the design of control laws for the aircraft rolling by actively operating a pair of an unconventional hingeless flexible leading and trailing control surfaces at different flight speed. The main challenge is how to achieve a specified rolling rate for the aircraft...