Passive Damping of a Flapping Wing

Abstract

Yaw and roll damping measurements of a flapping-wing aircraft during hover are taken with a load cell. Yaw damping is also estimated by analyzing the vibration of the suspended flapping-wing aircraft. The damping values obtained using the two methods increase with the increase of angular frequencies of yaw and rolling motions. They are also calculated using quasi-steady analysis. Furthermore, yaw damping is also estimated using the equation proposed by Hedrick et al. for flying animals. When the angular frequencies of yawing and rolling motions are smaller than 10% of the frequency of flapping motion, the theoretical values from the quasi-steady analysis and the equation of Hedrick et al. agree well with the experimental values.