Numerical and Experimental Investigation of the Piezoelectric Flapping Wing Micro-Air-Vehicles Propulsion 2012-01-2245
The flapping flight is advantageous for its superior maneuverability and much more aerodynamically efficiency for the small size UAV when compared to the conventional steady-state aerodynamics solution. Especially, it is appropriate for the Micro-air-vehicle (MAV) propulsion system, where the flapping wings can generate the required thrust. This paper investigated such solution, based on the piezoelectric patches, which are attached to the flexible plates, in combination with an appropriate amplification mechanisms. The numerical and experimental flow analyses have been carried out for the piezoelectric flapping plate, in order to characterize the fluid structure interaction induced by the swinging movement of the oscillating plate. The time-resolved Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements were conducted on a piezoelectric flapping wing with finite span operating at 84.8 Hz in air in order to validate the numerical simulations, and the comparison showed good matching, as reported in this paper.
Citation: Bidakhvidi, M., Vucinic, D., and Vanlanduit, S., "Numerical and Experimental Investigation of the Piezoelectric Flapping Wing Micro-Air-Vehicles Propulsion," SAE Int. J. Aerosp. 5(1):281-287, 2012, https://doi.org/10.4271/2012-01-2245. Download Citation
Author(s):
Mohammad Ahmadi Bidakhvidi, Dean Vucinic, Steve Vanlanduit
Affiliated:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pages: 7
ISSN:
1946-3855
e-ISSN:
1946-3901
Also in:
SAE International Journal of Aerospace-V121-1, SAE International Journal of Aerospace-V121-1EJ
Related Topics:
Wings
Flaps
Unmanned aerial vehicles
Particulate matter (PM)
Thrust
Aerodynamics
Imaging and visualization
SAE MOBILUS
Subscribers can view annotate, and download all of SAE's content.
Learn More »