Abstract
The aerodynamic characteristics of various wing planforms at low Reynolds numbers (about 1 x 10 4 ) were studied by conducting wind-tunnel tests. These low Reynolds numbers correspond to the flights of small creatures, such as insects. Elliptical, rectangular, and triangular planforms with various aspect ratios were used in this study, as well as a swept rectangular (parallelogram) wing with an aspect ratio of four. The wing sections of all models were thin rectangular airfoils. The aerodynamic forces (lift and drag) and the pitching moment acting on the wing were measured for a wide range of angles of attack (including the maximum of 90 deg). Nonlinear characteristics of the lift coefficient were obtained, even at low angles of attack for high-aspect-ratio wings, whereas a small lift slope and a large maximum lift coefficient were obtained for low-aspect-ratio wings. The drag and the pitching moment coefficients also exhibited nonlinear characteristics. The effect of the Reynolds number based on the wing chord was comparatively small, but a distinctive phenomenon in low-Reynolds-number flow was observed in flow visualization using oil-film and smoke-wire methods.
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