Lagrangian Coherent Structures (LCS) of tandem wings hovering in an inclined stroke plane is studied using ImmersedBoundary Method (IBM) by solving two dimensional (2D) incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Coherent structures responsible for the force variation are visualized by calculating Finite Time Lyapunov Exponents (FTLE), and vorticity contours. LCS is effective in determining the vortex boundaries, flow separation, and the wing-vortex interactions accurately. The effects of inter-wing distance and phase difference on the force generation are studied. Results show that in-phase stroking generates maximum vertical force and counter-stroking generates the least vertical force. In-phase stroking generates a wake with swirl, and counter stroking generates a wake with predominant vertical velocity. Counter stroking aids the stability of the body in hovering. As the hindwing operates in the wake of the forewing, due to the reduction in the effective Angle of Attack (AoA), the hindwing generates lesser force than that of a single flapping wing. © 2017 Jilin University

S. Vengadesan

Department of Applied Mechanics

Angle of attack

Flow separation

Lagrange multipliers

Lyapunov methods

Pollution control

Vortex flow

wakes

Wings

Angle of attacks (AOA)

DRAGONFLY

Finite-time Lyapunov exponent

Immersed-boundary method

Incompressible Navier Stokes equations

Lagrangian coherent structures

Tandem wings

Two Dimensional (2 D)

Navier Stokes equations

IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

IIT Madras

Lagrangian Coherent Structures in Tandem Flapping Wing Hovering

Journal of Bionic Engineering

Global recurrence plots (GRPs) and windowed recurrence quantification analysis (WRQA) are two recurrence paradigms which find wide applications to detect the onset of instability in a dynamic system. The present work reports the attempt to employ these recurrence paradigms to assess the effect of frontal gust on the force patterns of an insect-sized flapping wing in the inclined-stroke plane. Horizontal and vertical forces generated by the flapping wing in the presence of gusts of the form uGuw=u∞uw+(uguw)sin(2πfgfwt) were numerically estimated in the 2D reference frame for Re = 150. Nine gusts with combinations of the ratio of gust frequency to wing’s flapping frequency, fg/fw = 0.1, 0.5 and 1 and ratio of gust velocity amplitude to root mean square averaged flapping velocity, ug/uw = 0.1, 0.5 and 1 were considered. Recurrence studies of the forces were carried out to find out the gusty condition, which would trigger an onset of unstable behaviour. Studies indicated a possible onset of instability in the force patterns for gust with fg/fw = 0.1 and ug/uw = 1. The onset of unstable behaviour was prominently captured by WRQA of the vertical force coefficient based on determinism (DET) and laminarity (LAM) series. © 2019, Indian Academy of Sciences.

Fulltext

Sadhana - Academy Proceedings in Engineering Sciences

Recurrence studies of insect-sized flapping wings in inclined-stroke plane under gusty conditions

Ornithopters and entomopters should be insensitive to the gusty environment during outdoor operations. Hence, it becomes imperative to understand their behaviour under the influence of gust for ensuring stable flight. In light of this, the present numerical study focused on understanding the aerodynamics of flapping wings with five different planform shapes under the influence of a spatiotemporally varying frontal gust. 3D, unsteady, laminar, and incompressible Navier-Stokes equations were solved using finite volume formulation. A canonical case of asymmetric 1 degree of freedom (DoF) flapping kinematics was considered. Horizontal and vertical force patterns in constant and gusty inflow conditions were numerically computed and compared. Findings were analyzed quantitatively by comparing the differences in the instantaneous force patterns, ordinal scoring approach, and phase space plots. Qualitative comparisons were made based on plots of vortex structures and surface pressure contours for constant and gusty inflow conditions for wings with different planform shapes. Spanwise Lagrangian Coherent Structures (LCS) of all the five wings were also compared. Studies revealed that the elliptical wing exhibited low sensitivity and inverse semi-elliptical wing exhibited high sensitivity to the gusty inflow. Rectangular, triangular and semi-elliptical shaped wings were moderately sensitive to the gusty inflow. This finding, within the limitations of the flapping kinematics and simulation conditions considered for the present study, supported the fact that many natural flyers like forest raptors, non-migratory passerines, pheasants, and partridges have adopted elliptical wing planform for efficient flight. © Royal Aeronautical Society 2019.

Aeronautical Journal

Simulation of flapping wings subjected to gusty inflow

Wing Kinematics, Aerodynamic Forces and Vortex-wake Structures in Fruit-flies in Forward Flight

Aerodynamic performance of the locust wing in gliding mode at low Reynolds number

Physics of Fluids

Direct numerical simulation of the flow around an aerofoil in ramp-up motion

Computers & Fluids

Numerical study of tandem flapping wing aerodynamics in both two and three dimensions

Power Requirements of Vertical Flight in the Dronefly

Journal	Journal of Bionic Engineering
Publisher	Science Press
ISSN	16726529
Open Access	No