Abstract
In this study, Aeshna cyanea dragonfly forewing mid-cross-section corrugated airfoil was simulated at ultra-low Reynolds number. The corrugated airfoil was compared with its smooth counterpart to study the effect of the corrugations upon the aerodynamic performance. Unsteady two-dimensional laminar flow was solved using FLUENT. This study was divided into gliding phase and flapping phase. In the gliding phase, the corrugated airfoil produced a higher lift force with respect to the profiled airfoil at both tested Reynolds numbers ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) with comparable drag coefficient for all the tested angles of attack. In the flapping phase, both the corrugated airfoil and the flat-plate have a very similar flow behavior which yields a very similar aerodynamic performance at Re[Formula: see text]. A structural analysis was performed to compare the corrugated airfoil with the flat-plate. The analysis revealed the superiority of the corrugated airfoil over the flat-plate in decreasing the deflection under the applied load. The reduced frequency was varied to study its impact on the aerodynamic performance. By increasing the reduced frequency, the thrust and the lift forces increased by [Formula: see text]% and [Formula: see text]%, respectively. Any increase in the reduced frequency will increase lift and thrust forces, but the propulsive efficiency will deteriorate.
Highlights
In the 1990s, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated the challenge to create small and lightweight flyers to mimic nature
By increasing the Reynolds number up to 104, the flow becomes unsteady for all the angles of attack
A. cyanea dragonfly forewing mid-crosssection corrugated airfoil was simulated at ultra-low Reynolds number
Summary
In the 1990s, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated the challenge to create small and lightweight flyers to mimic nature. Another 2D numerical analysis was conducted to study the effect of the stroke plane angle for a flapping dragonfly corrugated airfoil upon thrust and lift generation.[22] FLUENT solver was used to solve the corrugated airfoil which corresponds to profile 2 in Kesel[10] in simple plunging and pitching motions (i.e. forward flight) within range of 103\Re\5 3 103.
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