Reynolds number, thickness and camber effects on flapping airfoil propulsion

The effect of varying airfoil thickness and camber on plunging and combined pitching and plunging airfoil propulsion at Reynolds number Re=200, 2000, 20 000 and 2×10⁶ was studied by numerical simulations for fully laminar and fully turbulent flow regimes. The thickness study was performed on 2-D NACA symmetric airfoils with 6-50% thick sections undergoing pure plunging motion at reduced frequency k=2 and amplitudes h=0.25 and 0.5, and for combined pitching and plunging motion at k=2, h=0.5, phase ?=90°, pitch angle θ_o=15° and 30° and the pitch axis was located at 1/3 of chord from leading edge. At Re=200 for motions where positive thrust is generated, thin airfoils outperform thick airfoils. At higher Re significant gains could be achieved both in thrust generation and propulsive efficiency by using a thicker airfoil section for plunging and combined motion with low pitch amplitude. The camber study was performed on 2-D NACA airfoils with varying camber locations undergoing pure plunging motion at k=2, h=0.5 and Re=20 000. Little variation in thrust performance was found with camber. The underlying physics behind the alteration in propulsive performance between low and high Reynolds numbers has been explored by comparing viscous Navier-Stokes and inviscid panel method results. The role of leading edge vortices was found to be key to the observed performance variation.     

Effect of flexure on aerodynamic propulsive efficiency of flapping flexible airfoil

The aim of present study is to investigate the effect of chord-wise flexure amplitude on unsteady aerodynamic characteristics for a flapping airfoil with various combinations of Reynolds number and reduced frequency. Unsteady, viscous flows over a single flexible airfoil in plunge motion are computed using conformal hybrid meshes. The dynamic mesh technique is applied to illustrate the deformation modes of the flexible flapping airfoil. In order to investigate the influence of the flexure amplitude on the aerodynamic performance of the flapping airfoil, the present study considers eight different flexure amplitudes (a₀) ranging from 0 to 0.7 in intervals of 0.1 under conditions of Re=10⁴, reduced frequency k=2, and dimensionless plunge amplitude h₀=0.4. The computed unsteady flow fields clearly reveal the formation and evolution of a pair of leading edge vortices along the body of the flexible airfoil as it undergoes plunge motion. Thrust-indicative wake structures are generated when the flexure amplitude of the airfoil is less than 0.5 of the chord length. An enhancement in the propulsive efficiency is observed for a flapping airfoil with flexure amplitude of 0.3 of the chord length. This study also calculates the propulsive efficiency and thrust under various Reynolds numbers and reduced frequency conditions. The results indicate that the propulsive efficiency has a strong correlation with the reduced frequency. It is found that the flow conditions which yield the highest propulsive efficiency correspond to Strouhal number St of 0.255.     

On the thrust performance of a flapping two-dimensional elliptic airfoil in a forward flight

In this paper, results of numerical and experimental studies are presented for a flapping two-dimensional (2D)elliptic airfoil in a forward flight condition at a Reynolds number of 5000.The study is motivated by the experiment of Read et al. (2003), which shows that the thrust coefficient of a 2D NACA0012 airfoil deteriorated at high flapping frequency (or Strouhal number) when the induced effective angle of attack profile ceases to be a simple harmonic function in time. As to why non-simple-harmonic profile of effective angle of attack is detrimental to thrust generation is not fully understood. The paper is an attempt to address this issue by examining the flow mechanism, including near field flow structures and the associated transient aerodynamic forces and pressure field, responsible for the observed behavior. Our results show that thrust suppression can be attributed to an adverse suction effect due to high rotation rate of the airfoil and the presence of an attached leading edge vortex generated in the previous stroke. The results further show that the condition for best efficiency need not necessary coincides with the condition of best thrust performance; this observation has been made in past studies of flapping flight.     

Experimental study of wings undergoing active root flapping and pitching

This paper presents the results of experiments carried out on mechanical wings undergoing active root flapping and pitching in the wind tunnel. The objective of the work is to investigate the effect of the pitch angle oscillations and wing profile on the aerodynamic forces generated by the wings. The experiments were repeated for a different reduced frequency, airspeed, flapping and pitching kinematics, geometric angle of attack and wing sections (one symmetric and two cambered airfoils). A specially designed mechanical flapper was used, modelled on large migrating birds. It is shown that, under pitch leading conditions, good thrust generation can be obtained at a wide range of Strouhal numbers if the pitch angle oscillation is adjusted accordingly. Consequently, high thrust was measured at both the lowest and highest tested Strouhal numbers. Furthermore, the work demonstrates that the aerodynamic forces can be sensitive to the Reynolds number, depending on the camber of the wings. Under pitch lagging conditions, where the effective angle of attack amplitude is highest, the symmetric wing was affected by the Reynolds number, generating less thrust at the lowest tested Reynolds value. In contrast, under pure flapping conditions, where the effective angle of attack amplitude was lower but still significant, it was the cambered wings that demonstrated Reynolds sensitivity.     

Flow around a NACA0018 airfoil with a cavity and its dynamical response to acoustic forcing

Trapping of vortices in a cavity has been explored in recent years as a drag reduction measure for thick airfoils. If, however, trapping fails, then oscillation of the cavity flow may couple with elastic vibration modes of the airfoil. To examine this scenario, the effect of small amplitude vertical motion on the oscillation of the shear layer above the cavity is studied by acoustic forcing simulating a vertical translation of a modified NACA0018 profile. At low Reynolds numbers based on the chord (O(10⁴)), natural instability modes of this shear layer are observed for Strouhal numbers based on the cavity width of order unity. Acoustic forcing sufficiently close to the natural instability frequency induces a strong non-linear response due to lock-in of the shear layer. At higher Reynolds numbers (above 10⁵) for Strouhal number 0.6 or lower, no natural instabilities of the shear layer and only a linear response to forcing were observed. The dynamical pressure difference across the airfoil is then dominated by added mass effects, as was confirmed by numerical simulations.     

An experimental study of the effects of pitch-pivot-point location on the propulsion performance of a pitching airfoil

An experimental investigation was conducted to characterize the evolution of the unsteady vortex structures in the wake of a pitching airfoil with the pitch-pivot-point moving from 0.16C to 0.52C (C is the chord length of the airfoil). The experimental study was conducted in a low-speed wind tunnel with a symmetric NACA0012 airfoil model in pitching motion under different pitching kinematics (i.e., reduced frequency k=3.8–13.2). A high-resolution particle image velocimetry (PIV) system was used to conduct detailed flow field measurements to quantify the characteristics of the wake flow and the resultant propulsion performance of the pitching airfoil. Besides conducting “free-run” PIV measurements to determine the ensemble-averaged velocity distributions in the wake flow, “phase-locked” PIV measurements were also performed to elucidate further details about the behavior of the unsteady vortex structures. Both the vorticity–moment theorem and the integral momentum theorem were used to evaluate the effects of the pitch-pivot-point location on the propulsion performance of the pitching airfoil. It was found that the pitch-pivot-point would affect the evolution of the unsteady wake vortices and resultant propulsion performance of the pitching airfoil greatly. Moving the pitch-pivot-point of the pitching airfoil can be considered as adding a plunging motion to the original pitching motion. With the pitch-pivot-point moving forward (or backward), the added plunging motion would make the airfoil trailing edge moving in the same (or opposite) direction as of the original pitching motion, which resulted in the generated wake vortices and resultant thrust enhanced (or weakened) by the added plunging motion.     

Analysis of non-symmetrical flapping airfoils

Simulations have been done to assess the lift, thrust and propulsive efficiency of different types of non-symmetrical airfoils under different flapping configurations. The variables involved are reduced frequency, Strouhal number, pitch amplitude and phase angle. In order to analyze the variables more efficiently, the design of experiments using the response surface methodology is applied. Results show that both the variables and shape of the airfoil have a profound effect on the lift, thrust, and efficiency. By using non- symmetrical airfoils, average lift coefficient as high as 2.23 can be obtained. The average thrust coefficient and efficiency also reach high values of 2.53 and 0.61, respectively. The lift production is highly dependent on the airfoil＇s shape while thrust production is influenced more heavily by the variables. Efficiency falls somewhere in between. Two-factor interac- tions are found to exist among the variables. This shows that it is not sufficient to analyze each variable individually. Vorticity diagrams are analyzed to explain the results obtained. Overall, the S1020 airfoil is able to provide relatively good efficiency and at the same time generate high thrust and lift force. These results aid in the design of a better ornithopter＇s wing.     

Efficiency of an auto-propelled flapping airfoil

The present study deals with an investigation of the flow aerodynamic characteristics and the propulsive velocity of a system equipped with a nature inspired propulsion system. In particular, the study is aimed at studying the effect of the flapping frequency on the flow behavior. We consider a NACA0014 airfoil undergoing a vertical sinusoidal flapping motion. In contrast to nearly all previous studies in the literature, the present work does not impose any velocity on the inlet flow. During each iteration the outer flow velocity is computed after having determined the forces exerted on the airfoil. Forward motion may only be produced by flapping motion of the airfoil. This is more consistent with the physical phenomenon. The non-stationary viscous flow around the flapping airfoil is simulated using Ansys-Fluent 12.0.7. The airfoil movement is achieved using the deformable mesh technique and an in-house developed User Define Function (UDF). Our results show the influence of flapping frequency and amplitude on both the airfoil velocity and the propulsive efficiency. The resulting motion is contrasts to the applied forces. In the present study, the frequency ranges from 0.1 to 20 Hz while the airfoil amplitude values considered are: 10%, 17.5%, 25% and 40%.     

Thrust augmentation of flapping airfoils in low Reynolds number flow using a flexible membrane

The unsteady aerodynamic thrust and aeroelastic response of a two-dimensional membrane airfoil under prescribed harmonic motion are investigated computationally with a high-order Navier–Stokes solver coupled to a nonlinear membrane structural model. The effects of membrane prestress and elasticity are examined parametrically for selected plunge and pitch–plunge motions at a chord-based Reynolds number of 2500. The importance of inertial membrane loads resulting from the prescribed flapping is also assessed for pure plunging motions. This study compares the period-averaged aerodynamic loads of flexible versus rigid membrane airfoils and highlights the vortex structures and salient fluid–membrane interactions that enable more efficient flapping thrust production in low Reynolds number flows.     

Numerical analysis of active chordwise flexibility on the performance of non-symmetrical flapping airfoils

This paper investigates the effect of active chordwise flexing on the lift, thrust and propulsive efficiency of three types of airfoils. The factors studied are the flexing center location, standard two-sided flexing as well as a type of single-sided flexing. The airfoils are simulated to flap with four configurations, and the effects of flexing under these configurations are investigated. Results show that flexing is not necessarily beneficial for the performance of the airfoils. However, with the correct parameters, efficiency is as high as 0.76 by placing the flexing centre at the trailing edge. The average thrust coefficient is more than twice as high, from 1.63 to 3.57 with flapping and flexing under the right conditions. Moreover, the single-sided flexing also gives an average lift coefficient as high as 4.61 for the S1020 airfoil. The shape of the airfoil does alter the effect of flexing too. Deviating the flexing phase angle away from 90° does not give a significant improvement to the airfoil’s performance. These results greatly enhance the design of a better performing ornithopter wing.     

An experimental study of a bio-inspired corrugated airfoil for micro air vehicle applications

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a bio-inspired corrugated airfoil compared with a smooth-surfaced airfoil and a flat plate at the chord Reynolds number of Re _C  = 58,000–125,000 to explore the potential applications of such bio-inspired corrugated airfoils for micro air vehicle designs. In addition to measuring the aerodynamic lift and drag forces acting on the tested airfoils, a digital particle image velocimetry system was used to conduct detailed flowfield measurements to quantify the transient behavior of vortex and turbulent flow structures around the airfoils. The measurement result revealed clearly that the corrugated airfoil has better performance over the smooth-surfaced airfoil and the flat plate in providing higher lift and preventing large-scale flow separation and airfoil stall at low Reynolds numbers (Re _C  < 100,000). While aerodynamic performance of the smooth-surfaced airfoil and the flat plate would vary considerably with the changing of the chord Reynolds numbers, the aerodynamic performance of the corrugated airfoil was found to be almost insensitive to the Reynolds numbers. The detailed flow field measurements were correlated with the aerodynamic force measurement data to elucidate underlying physics to improve our understanding about how and why the corrugation feature found in dragonfly wings holds aerodynamic advantages for low Reynolds number flight applications.     

The effect of phase angle and wing spacing on tandem flapping wings

In a tandem wing configuration, the hindwing often operates in the wake of the forewing and, hence, its performance is affected by the vortices shed by the forewing. Changes in the phase angle between the flapping motions of the fore and the hind wings, as well as the spacing between them, can affect the resulting vortex/wing and vortex/vortex interactions. This study uses 2D numerical simulations to investigate how these changes affect the leading dege vortexes (LEV) generated by the hindwing and the resulting effect on the lift and thrust coefficients as well as the efficiencies. The tandem wing configuration was simulated using an incompressible Navier-Stokes solver at a chord-based Reynolds number of 5 000. A harmonic single frequency sinusoidal oscillation consisting of a combined pitch and plunge motion was used for the flapping wing kinematics at a Strouhal number of 0.3. Four different spacings ranging from 0.1 chords to 1 chord were tested at three different phase angles, 0°, 90° and 180°. It was found that changes in the spacing and phase angle affected the timing of the interaction between the vortex shed from the forewing and the hindwing. Such an interaction affects the LEV formation on the hindwing and results in changes in aerodynamic force production and efficiencies of the hindwing. It is also observed that changing the phase angle has a similar effect as changing the spacing. The results further show that at different spacings the peak force generation occurs at different phase angles, as do the peak efficiencies.     

N-S方程数值研究翼型对微型扑翼气动特性的影响

首先基于嵌套网格发展了一套适用于三维扑翼研究的非定常雷诺平均Navier-Stokes(RANS)方程数值模拟方法.为了解决微型扑翼在低马赫数下的收敛问题,使用了预处理方法,湍流模型为BL模型.在该方法的基础上,保持状态参数和扑翼表面形状一定的情况下,分别研究了一系列不同厚度、不同弯度的翼型对于微型扑翼气动特性的影响....     

Comparative Analysis of the Characteristics of the Vortex Wake behind a Flapping Wing Performing Oscillations of Different Types

The wake characteristics of a custom-designed airfoil performing pitching oscillations, heaving oscillations, and a combination of pitch and heave oscillations are compared in this study. The influence of flapping parameters are investigated at a constant Reynolds number Re\(_{c} = 2640\) and is presented for the Strouhal numbers based on the oscillation amplitude, St_A, varying in the \(0.1 \leqslant {\text{S}}{{{\text{t}}}_{A}} \leqslant 0.4\) range. The generation of vorticity above and below the airfoil depends on the airfoil’s initial direction of motion and remains the same for all types of flapping oscillations investigated. The evolution of the leading-edge and trailing-edge vortices is presented. The heaving oscillations of the airfoil are found to have a greater influence on the characteristics of the leading edge vortex. The wake behind the combined pitch-heave oscillations appears to be governed by pitching oscillations below \({\text{S}}{{{\text{t}}}_{A}} = 0.24\), whereas it is driven by heaving oscillations above \({\text{S}}{{{\text{t}}}_{A}} = 0.24\). The force computations indicate that the mere existence of the reverse von Kármán street is not sufficient to develop the thrust on the airfoil. The periodic component of velocity fluctuations significantly influences the wake characteristics. The anisotropic stress field developed around the airfoil due to the periodic fluctuations of the velocity is presented. The coherent structures developed in the wake are identified using the proper orthogonal decomposition and a qualitative comparison of the structures for different flapping oscillations is presented. The energy transfer from the flapping airfoil to the fluid for different flapping oscillations is highest for heaving oscillations followed by combined pitch-heave oscillations and pitching oscillations.

     

Prediction of high frequency gust response with airfoil thickness effects

The unsteady lift forces that act on an airfoil in turbulent flow are an undesirable source of vibration and noise in many industrial applications. Methods to predict these forces have traditionally treated the airfoil as a flat plate. At higher frequencies, where the relevant turbulent length scales are comparable to the airfoil thickness, the flat plate approximation becomes invalid and results in overprediction of the unsteady force spectrum. This work provides an improved methodology for the prediction of the unsteady lift forces that accounts for the thickness of the airfoil. An analytical model was developed to calculate the response of the airfoil to high frequency gusts. The approach is based on a time-domain calculation with a sharp-edged gust and accounts for the distortion of the gust by the mean flow around the airfoil leading edge. The unsteady lift is calculated from a weighted integration of the gust vorticity, which makes the model relatively straightforward to implement and verify. For routine design calculations of turbulence-induced forces, a closed-form gust response thickness correction factor was developed for NACA 65 series airfoils.     

Parametric study of separation and transition characteristics over an airfoil at low Reynolds numbers

Time-resolved surface pressure measurements are used to experimentally investigate characteristics of separation and transition over a NACA 0018 airfoil for the relatively wide range of chord Reynolds numbers from 50,000 to 250,000 and angles of attack from 0° to 21°. The results provide a comprehensive data set of characteristic parameters for separated shear layer development and reveal important dependencies of these quantities on flow conditions. Mean surface pressure measurements are used to explore the variation in separation bubble position, edge velocity in the separated shear layer, and lift coefficients with angle of attack and Reynolds number. Consistent with previous studies, the separation bubble is found to move upstream and decrease in length as the Reynolds number and angle of attack increase. Above a certain angle of attack, the proximity of the separation bubble to the location of the suction peak results in a reduced lift slope compared to that observed at lower angles. Simultaneous measurements of the time-varying component of surface pressure at various spatial locations on the model are used to estimate the frequency of shear layer instability, maximum root-mean-square (RMS) surface pressure, spatial amplification rates of RMS surface pressure, and convection speeds of the pressure fluctuations in the separation bubble. A power-law correlation between the shear layer instability frequency and Reynolds number is shown to provide an order of magnitude estimate of the central frequency of disturbance amplification for various airfoil geometries at low Reynolds numbers. Maximum RMS surface pressures are found to agree with values measured in separation bubbles over geometries other than airfoils, when normalized by the dynamic pressure based on edge velocity. Spatial amplification rates in the separation bubble increase with both Reynolds number and angle of attack, causing the accompanying decrease in separation bubble length. Values of the convection speed of pressure fluctuations in the separated shear layer are measured to be between 35 and 50% of the edge velocity, consistent with predictions of linear stability theory for separated shear layers.     

Numerical study of large amplitude,nonsinusoidal motion and camber effects on pitching airfoil propulsion

The effects of large amplitude and nonsinusoidal motion on pitching airfoil aerodynamics for thrust generation were numerically studied with a 2-D NACA0012 airfoil used, and various 2-D NACA asymmetric airfoils were applied for camber effect study. The large amplitude effect study has been undertaken over a wide range of reduced frequency k (from 6 to 18) and pitching amplitude θ (from 5° to 30°) at Re=1.35×10⁴ with sinusoidal pitching profile used. It is shown that the large pitching amplitude results in much more thrust generated than that at low pitching amplitude and the increase of thrust with amplitude becomes slow when the amplitude reaches some degree. However, the propulsive efficiency noticeably decreases with the increase of θ at a fixed k.An adjustable parameter K was employed to realize various nonsinusoidal motions and the effect of nonsinusoidal motion was investigated with various unsteady parameters (θ, k) applied. The results reveal that nonsinusoidal motion has a noticeable effect on the aerodynamic performance, as it affects the instantaneous force coefficients, maximum thrust coefficients and flow structures. An increase in K results in a better thrust generation performance at fixed θ and k, especially for K>0. It is also shown that the larger K noticeably influences the wake pattern and induces a stronger reverse von Karman vortex street in the wake, which in turn leads to the increased thrust. The camber study was performed on various 2-D NACA airfoils with different cambers and camber locations undergoing sinusoidal pitching motion at θ=5° and Re=1.35×10⁴. It is found that varying camber offers little improvement in thrust generation performance.     

低雷诺数俯仰振荡翼型等离子体流动控制

针对低雷诺数翼型气动性能差的特点, 通过介质阻挡放电(dielectric barrier discharge, DBD)等离子体激励控制的方法, 提高翼型低雷诺数下的气动特性,改善其流场结构. 采用二维准直接数值模拟方法求解非定常不可压Navier-Stokes方程,对具有俯仰运动的NACA0012翼型的低雷诺数流动展开数值模拟.同时将介质阻挡放电激励对流动的作用以彻体力源项的形式加入Navier-Stokes方程,通过数值模拟探究稳态DBD等离子体激励对俯仰振荡NACA0012翼型气动特性和流场特性的影响.为了进行流动控制, 分别在上下表面的前缘和后缘处安装DBD等离子体激励器,并提出四种激励器的开环控制策略,通过对比研究了这些控制策略在不同雷诺数、不同减缩频率以及激励位置下的控制效果.通过流场结构和动态压强分析了等离子体进行流场控制的机理. 结果表明,前缘DBD控制中控制策略B(负攻角时开启上表面激励器,正攻角时开启下表面激励器)效果最好,后缘DBD控制中控制策略C(逆时针旋转时开启上表面激励器,顺时针旋转时开启下表面激励器)效果最好,前缘DBD控制效果会随着减缩频率的增大而下降, 同时会导致阻力增大.而后缘DBD控制可以减小压差阻力, 优于前缘DBD控制,对于计算的所有减缩频率(5.01~11.82)都有较好的增升减阻效果.在不同雷诺数下, DBD控制的增升效果较为稳定, 而减阻效果随着雷诺数的降低而变差,这是由流体黏性效应增强导致的.      

Investigation of steady plasma actuation effect on aerodynamic coefficients of oscillating airfoil at low Reynolds number

In this work, numerical study of two dimensional laminar incompressible flow around an oscillating NACA0012 airfoil is proceeded using the open source code Open FOAM. Oscillatory motion types including pitching and flapping are considered. Reynolds number for these motions is assumed to be 12000 and effects of these motions and also different unsteady parameters such as amplitude and reduced frequency on aerodynamic coefficients are studied. For flow control on airfoil, dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator is used in two different positions on airfoil and its effect is compared for the two types of considered oscillating motions. It is observed that in pitching motion, imposing plasma leads to an improvement in aerodynamic coefficients, but it does not have any positive effect on flapping motion.Also, for the amplitudes and frequencies investigated in this paper, the trailing edge plasma had a more desirable effect than other positions.     

Schooling behavior of rigid and flexible heaving airfoils

The schooling behavior of rigid and flexible NACA0017 airfoils undergoing a heaving motion was experimentally explored using a merry-go-round configuration. Each airfoil was attached to the end of a horizontal support bar whose other end was connected to a freely rotating vertical axis. The axis was forced to undergo a sinusoidal motion in the vertical direction to generate a pure heaving motion of the airfoil in the frequency range of 0.4 to 4.8 Hz. The propulsion due to the heaving airfoil was expressed as the horizontal rotational speed of the support bar. This experimental setup simulates an infinite schooling of airfoils separated by a streamwise distance d undergoing in-phase heaving motions. The ratio of the distance to the chord length, d/c, was determined by the number of airfoils (2 ≤ n ≤ 8). The variation in rotational frequency F as a function of heaving frequency f was determined using different experimental parameters. The schooling number S = f /(nF), which represents the number of heaving oscillations between each pair of successive airfoils, was introduced to explain the schooling behavior of the airfoils. The effects of airfoil flexibility, d/c and f on the propulsive performance were examined in the context of the schooling behavior of the airfoils.