J0205-1-3 Analysis of flow fields around mechanical flapping wings by using PIV measurements

Abstract

Research and development of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) aiming at the investigation and the information gathering in the hazard area is now an active field. Flapping flight of insects and birds that are capable to perform precise hovering flight and to make rapid turn and maneuver steadily in sudden gust has been attracting specific attentions in the last decades. In this study, in order to validate a biology-inspired dynamic flight simulator that is designed to model realistic flapping-wing flights and to evaluate novel mechanisms in bio-flights, we conducted measurements and analysis of low Reynolds number unsetady flows around a flapping-wing robot "MOTH-1" by utilizing PIV techniques in a wind tunnel (JAXA). Our PIV results have thereby confirmed the strong leading-edge vortices and the vortex rings as predicted in our previous simulation study.