Flight Simulation of Taketombo Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics and Computational Flight Dynamics

Abstract

In the present study we have developed a numerical method to simulate the flight dynamics of a small flying body with unsteady motion, where both aerodynamics and flight dynamics are fully considered. A key point of this numerical code is to use computational fluid dynamics and computational flight dynamics at the same time, which is referred to as CFD², or double CFDs, where several new ideas are adopted in the governing equations, the method to make each quantity nondimensional, and the coupling method between aerodynamics and flight dynamics. This numerical code can be applied to simulate the unsteady motion of small vehicles such as micro air vehicles (MAV). As a sample calculation, we take up Taketombo, or a bamboo dragonfly, and its free flight in the air is demonstrated. The eventual aim of this research is to virtually fly an aircraft with arbitrary motion to obtain aerodynamic and flight dynamic data, which cannot be taken in the conventional wind tunnel.