Three-Dimensional Free-Flight Analysis of the Rapid Turning of a Dragonfly Using Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis

• Published in: Journal of Computational Science and Technology Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 75 - 88
• Main Authors: HAMAMOTO, Masaki, OHTA, Yoshiji, HARA, Keita, HISADA, Toshiaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers 2013
• Subjects: Actuation; Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian Method; Biomimetics; Computer simulation; Deformation; Finite Element Method; Flapping; Flapping Flight; Fluid-structure interaction; Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis; Micro air vehicles (MAV); Odonata; Rigid-body dynamics; Wings (aircraft)
• ISSN: 1881-6894; 1881-6894
• DOI: 10.1299/jcst.7.75

Recent studies of the flapping flight of insects have succeeded in solving the unsteady aerodynamics of hovering and contributed to realizing bio-inspired micro aerial vehicles (MAVs). However, the effect of wing deformation on the aerodynamics has not been investigated because of a lack of appropriate analysis methods. As an initial step to creating a “total” simulator for flapping flight, we developed a free-flight simulator by combining fluid-structure interaction finite element analysis based on the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method, which can quantitatively treat the strong interaction between the wing deformation and its surrounding airflow, and a rigid body dynamics analytical solver. With biologically-inspired flapping motion, which mimicked the changes in the stroke motion of the wing, the numerical model of the dragonfly performed rapid turning over 1200°/s of yaw angular velocity. Although the flapping motion for the left wing on the trigger flapping and the right wing on the resumed flapping (or its inversed combination) are identical, a considerable difference in the deformation of the wing during this identical flapping between the former and latter halves of the turn was observed. Thus, while these actuations were identical, the directions of the aerodynamic forces were largely controlled by passive deformations of the wings. These results meant that the effect of wing deformation on its aerodynamics should be taken into account and thus fluid-structure interaction analysis is required to effectively design the actuation of the wing on an artificial MAV.