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Thrust, drag and wake structure in flapping compliant membrane wings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2019

Gali Alon Tzezana Open the ORCID record for Gali Alon Tzezana [Opens in a new window]  and
Kenneth S. Breuer Open the ORCID record for Kenneth S. Breuer [Opens in a new window]
Gali Alon Tzezana*
Affiliation:
Brown University, School of Engineering, Providence, RI 02912, USA
Kenneth S. Breuer
Affiliation:
Brown University, School of Engineering, Providence, RI 02912, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

We present a theoretical framework to characterize the steady and unsteady aeroelastic behaviour of compliant membrane wings under different conditions. We develop an analytic model based on thin airfoil theory coupled with a membrane equation. Adopting a numerical solution to the model equations, we study the effects of wing compliance, inertia and flapping kinematics on aerodynamic performance. The effects of added mass and fluid damping on a flapping membrane are quantified using a simple damped oscillator model. As the flapping frequency is increased, membranes go through a transition from thrust to drag around the resonant frequency, and this transition is earlier for more compliant membranes. The wake also undergoes a transition from a reverse von Kármán wake to a traditional von Kármán wake. The wake transition frequency is predicted to be higher than the thrust–drag transition frequency for highly compliant wings.

JFM classification

Biological Fluid Dynamics: Propulsion Biological Fluid Dynamics: Swimming/flying
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 862 , 10 March 2019 , pp. 871 - 888
Copyright
© 2019 Cambridge University Press 

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