Fluid-Structural Dynamics of Flapping, Flexible Airfoils

M. VANELLA, S. PREIDIKMAN, E. BALARAS, AND B. BALACHANDRAN

Tampa Bay, Florida, USA

Conferencia; The 2006 APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 59th Annual Meeting (DFD06); 2006

American Physical Society - Division of Fluid Dynamics

In recent years, °apping °ight has received considerable attention and many studies have been pursued in the °uid dynamics community by using simpli¯ed two-dimensional rigid airfoils and three-dimensional rigid wings with prescribed kinematics. Although these studies provide important insights and help explain experimental observations, the coupled °uid-structural dynamics of °exible, flapping wings remains largely unexplored. In order to understand this dynamics as well as to gain insights into insect °ight, numerical studies of a two-part hinged plate con¯guration with a °exural coupling moving in a viscous °uid are conducted. The two-part con¯guration is described by a set of four coupled, nonlinear second-order di®erential system, and this system in conjunction with the Navier-Stokes equations and the boundary conditions constitute the complete system. A strongly coupled embedded boundary formulation is used to fully capture the °uid-structure interactions and determine the solution of the coupled system of equations. Parametric studies are undertaken to understand the dependence of the lift and drag coe±cients on the relative inertia properties of the °uid and foil systems and sti®ness characteristics of the °apping foil system. Instantaneous vortex dynamics is also studied, and the results obtained are compared with prior work.