Unsteady Aerodynamics of Flapping Airfoil in Hovering Flight at Low Reynolds Numbers

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2005-01-13
Farcy, Alain
Kurtuluş, Dilek Funda
Alemdaroğlu, Hüseyin Nafiz
The major aim of flapping motion research is based on the understanding of the relation between the temporal and the spatial changes of the wake structure and the resulting instantaneous aerodynamic forces over the flapping wings. The essential physics of nonsteady airfoil problems can be observed from simplified two-dimensional experiments, and the interpretations of the behavior can be supported by theoretical or numerical models. The aim of this study is to find optimum parameters to generate maximum lift during this motion, by using numerical methods and analytical models. A great number of cases are investigated involving the changes in the parameters such as angle of attack, location of start of change of incidence, location of start of change of velocity, axis of rotation, and Re number. In addition to the instantaneous aerodynamic forces, pressure distributions and vorticity contours, the average lift and drag coefficient values are also calculated. Positive lift values along the motion are obtained for angle of attack greater than 30°. The vortices shed during the flapping motion generate the lift. A modelization program is developed by use of Duhamel integral in order to compare with DNS results.

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Citation Formats
A. Farcy, D. F. Kurtuluş, and H. N. Alemdaroğlu, “Unsteady Aerodynamics of Flapping Airfoil in Hovering Flight at Low Reynolds Numbers,” 2005, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/46478.