Research on aerodynamic performance of a two-stage flapping wing vehicle

This paper employs FLUENT to investigate of the aerodynamic characteristics of a two-stage flapping wing vehicle with 3-DoF of flapping, twisting and folding. The dynamic mesh method is used to obtain the lift and drag coefficients for different inner and outer wing span lengths, flapping frequencies, incoming flow velocities and angle of attack. The pressure contour of the surface of the wings were elucidated, and the aerodynamic mechanism of the two-stage flapping wing is further revealed. The results demonstrate that the flapping wing vehicle exhibits favorable aerodynamic characteristics with an inner wingspan of 100 mm, an outer wingspan of 150 mm, an incoming velocity of 10 m/s, a flapping frequency of 10 Hz and an angle of attack of 0°.Therefore, by constructing a three-dimensional wing dynamics model and varying the motion modes such as inner and outer wingspan, flapping frequency, incident flow velocity, and angle of attack, it can provide reference for improving the aerodynamic performance of two-stage flapping wing aircraft.