An experimental study of a bio-inspired corrugated airfoil for micro air vehicle applications |
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Authors: | Jeffery T Murphy Hui Hu |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Aerospace Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA; |
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Abstract: | An experimental study was conducted to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a bio-inspired corrugated airfoil compared
with a smooth-surfaced airfoil and a flat plate at the chord Reynolds number of Re
C
= 58,000–125,000 to explore the potential applications of such bio-inspired corrugated airfoils for micro air vehicle designs.
In addition to measuring the aerodynamic lift and drag forces acting on the tested airfoils, a digital particle image velocimetry
system was used to conduct detailed flowfield measurements to quantify the transient behavior of vortex and turbulent flow
structures around the airfoils. The measurement result revealed clearly that the corrugated airfoil has better performance
over the smooth-surfaced airfoil and the flat plate in providing higher lift and preventing large-scale flow separation and
airfoil stall at low Reynolds numbers (Re
C
< 100,000). While aerodynamic performance of the smooth-surfaced airfoil and the flat plate would vary considerably with
the changing of the chord Reynolds numbers, the aerodynamic performance of the corrugated airfoil was found to be almost insensitive
to the Reynolds numbers. The detailed flow field measurements were correlated with the aerodynamic force measurement data
to elucidate underlying physics to improve our understanding about how and why the corrugation feature found in dragonfly
wings holds aerodynamic advantages for low Reynolds number flight applications. |
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Keywords: | |
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