Quasi-steady aerodynamic model of clap-and-fling flapping MAV and validation using free-flight data

Area of Science:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Robotics
• Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Accurate aerodynamic models are vital for designing flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs) and their control systems.
• Existing models often lack accuracy, computational efficiency, or physical interpretability for complex flapping motions like clap-and-fling.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a phenomenological, time-resolved aerodynamic model for clap-and-fling ornithopters.
• To enhance existing quasi-steady models by incorporating unsteady effects and platform-specific kinematics.
• To provide a computationally efficient and physically meaningful model for FWMAV design and control.

Main Methods:

• Developed a phenomenological model based on quasi-steady aerodynamic theory.
• Incorporated inertial, circulatory, added mass, and viscous forces.
• Included a fling circulation factor for wing-wing interaction and considered real wing kinematics and flight regimes.
• Estimated model parameters using wind tunnel measurements from a physical test platform.

Main Results:

• The model accurately predicts lift forces on the test platform, validated against wind tunnel data.
• Effectively accounts for unsteady wing-wing interactions during the fling motion.
• Demonstrated considerable accuracy in predicting lift forces across different flight regimes using free-flight data.

Conclusions:

• The developed parameter-varying model accurately captures aerodynamic forces for clap-and-fling ornithopters.
• It is computationally simple, physically meaningful, and requires minimal measurements.
• The model is suitable for control design and conceptual studies of new FWMAV platforms.