Physics-based Morphology Analysis and Adjoint Optimization of Flexible Flapping Wings
Abstract
Changes in the dynamic morphology of the wing in flapping flights directly affect the instantaneous aerodynamic forces and therefore flight behavior. The wing shape and how it moves through the flow is the primary mechanism for momentum transfer to the fluid in the flapping flights. During this project period, high-fidelity CFD simulation and adjoint analysis/optimization tool has been used to study the aerodynamic role of wing morphology models built from the previous year and their interaction in a vast parametric space including aspect ratio, direction of flexibility (chord-wise, span-wise, etc.). Aerodynamic performance has been evaluated by looking at lift production, power consumption, and efficiency. Novel tools for studying wing morphing during complicated flapping flights have been developed to understand the underlying physics of flexible wings in flying insects and birds towards the bio-inspired wing designs with superior aerodynamic performance. In this funded work, we built up a team with experts from two institutes and hope to address the following basic questions about the aerodynamics of flapping flight:
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 30, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1021892
Entities
People
- Haibo Dong
- Joseph Shang
- Mingjun Wei
Organizations
- University of Virginia