Aerodynamic Performance of a Flapping Foil with Asymmetric Heaving Motion near a Wall

Abstract

The effect of asymmetric heaving motion on the aerodynamic performance of a two-dimensional flapping foil near a wall is studied numerically. The foil executes the heaving and pitching motion simultaneously. When the heaving motion is symmetric, the mean thrust coefficient monotonically increases with the decrease in mean distance between foil and wall. Meanwhile, the mean lift coefficient first increases and then decreases sharply. In addition, the negative mean lift coefficient appears when the foil is very close to the wall. After the introduction of asymmetric heaving motion, the influence of wall effect on the force behavior becomes complicated. The mean thrust coefficient is enhanced when the duration of upstroke is reduced. Moreover, more and more enhancement can be achieved when the foil approaches the wall gradually. On the other hand, the positive mean lift coefficient can be observed when the duration of downstroke is shortened. By checking the flow patterns around the foil, it is shown that the interaction between the vortex shed from the foil and the wall can greatly modify the pressure distribution along the foil surface. The results obtained here might be utilized to optimize the kinematics of the Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) flying near a solid wall.