A simulation-based study on longitudinal gust response of flexible flapping wings

Winged animals such as insects are capable of flying and surviving in an unsteady and unpredictable aerial environment. They generate and control aerodynamic forces by flapping their flexible wings. While the dynamic shape changes of their flapping wings are known to enhance the efficiency of their flight, they can also affect the stability of a flapping wing flyer under unpredictable disturbances by responding to the sudden changes of aerodynamic forces on the wing. In order to test the hypothesis, the gust response of flexible flapping wings is investigated numerically with a specific focus on the passive maintenance of aerodynamic forces by the wing flexibility. The computational model is based on a dynamic flight simulator that can incorporate the realistic morphology, the kinematics, the structural dynamics, the aerodynamics and the fluid–structure interactions of a hovering hawkmoth. The longitudinal gusts are imposed against the tethered model of a hovering hawkmoth with flexible flapping wings. It is found that the aerodynamic forces on the flapping wings are affected by the gust, because of the increase or decrease in relative wingtip velocity or kinematic angle of attack. The passive shape change of flexible wings can, however, reduce the changes in the magnitude and direction of aerodynamic forces by the gusts from various directions, except for the downward gust. Such adaptive response of the flexible structure to stabilise the attitude can be classified into the mechanical feedback, which works passively with minimal delay, and is of great importance to the design of bio-inspired flapping wings for micro-air vehicles.     

Passive control of a single flexible flag using two side-by-side flags

Numerical simulations using an improved version of the immersed boundary method are performed to explore a passive control concept for a single flexible flag in a viscous uniform flow. In order to control a single flag passively, we utilize the distinct dynamics of two side-by-side flags, characterized by in-phase and out-of-phase flapping modes depending on their spanwise gap distance. When the two side-by-side flags are in an in-phase flapping mode with a small spanwise gap distance, the flapping amplitude of a single downstream flag is highly enhanced due to synchronization between the vortices shed from the upstream and downstream flags. However, when the two upstream flags flap in an out-of-phase flapping mode with a large spanwise gap distance, the flapping of the single flag is significantly weakened with a reduction of the dominant flapping frequency. Because the upstream flags induce consecutive counter-rotating vortex pairs with a high frequency due to their flapping mode (out-of-phase state), relatively strong interaction with an upcoming vortex of the opposite rotational direction leads to flapping inhibition of the single flag. For an intermediate spanwise gap distance, the vortex-to-vortex interaction between the flags becomes more complicated, and a change of the flapping phases of the two side-by-side flags depending on streamwise gap distance between the upstream and downstream flags occurs. The interactions between coupled flags are documented through the root-mean-square cross-stream tail positions, frequency, drag coefficient, vorticity and pressure contours of the flags with varying non-dimensional parameters relevant to the problem. The proposed passive control concept of a single flag using two side-by-side flags is applicable to the development of energy harvesting systems to extract more energy and flapping control systems to suppress vibration.     

Aeroelastic study of flexible flapping wings by a coupled lattice Boltzmann-finite element approach with immersed boundary method

In this paper, the behavior of two-dimensional symmetric flapping wings moving in a viscous fluid is investigated. Harmonic motion is applied to idealize flying organisms with flexible wings and extensive testing is carried out to investigate the resultant flight behavior related to the ability to take-off or accelerate the flapping wing system away from a starting location. Special attention is paid to analyze the effect of the main mechanical parameters, as well as the effect of lateral wind on flight performances. Moreover, aiming to investigate the possible benefits of flying in flocks, a couple of synchronously flapping wings is considered in addition to the single arrangement. The numerical simulations are performed by solving the fluid–structure interaction problem through a strongly coupled partitioned approach. Fluid dynamics are modeled at the mesoscopic scale by the lattice Boltzmann method. The resulting macroscopic quantities are derived, as usual, based on the statistical molecular-level interpretation.Wings are modeled by geometrically nonlinear, elastic beam finite elements and structure dynamics is solved by the time discontinuous Galerkin method. Fluid–structure interface conditions are handled using the immersed boundary method. The resultant numerical approach combines simplicity and high computational efficiency. A Monte Carlo simulation strategy is employed to characterize the flight behavior subjected to lateral wind. Various scenarios are discussed.     

On the validity of the independence principle applied to the vortex-induced vibrations of a flexible cylinder inclined at 60°

The vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) of a flexible cylinder inclined at 60° are investigated by means of direct numerical simulation, at a Reynolds number equal to 500, based on the cylinder diameter and inflow velocity. The cylinder has a circular cross-section and a length to diameter aspect ratio equal to 50; it is modeled as a tension-dominated structure which is free to oscillate in the in-line and cross-flow directions. The behavior of the coupled fluid–structure system is examined for two values of the tension. Particular attention is paid to the validity of the independence principle (IP) which states that the inclined and normal-incidence body cases are comparable if the inflow velocity normal component is used to scale the physical quantities.The flexible cylinder exhibits regular VIV for both values of the tension. In the high-tension configuration, where the in-line bending of the structure remains small, the IP is shown to be valid for the prediction of the cylinder responses and the fluid forces. In contrast, in the lower-tension configuration, the behavior of the fluid–structure system deviates from the IP. It is shown that this deviation is connected to the larger in-line bending of the structure which leads to considerably different profiles of the flow velocity locally perpendicular to the body in the inclined and normal cylinder cases. Since the system behavior appears to be mainly driven by this component of the flow, the profile modification induced by the larger in-line bending results in distinct responses: multi-frequency vibrations are observed in the inclined cylinder case whereas mono-frequency oscillations of larger amplitudes develop at normal incidence.     

Interaction of gap flow with flapping dynamics of two side-by-side elastic foils

Two side-by-side elastic foils placed in an axial flow with the leading edges clamped lose their stability to exhibit in-phase or out-of-phase modes due to the proximity induced effects. Of particular, the passive out-of-phase flapping mode typically represents the clapping mechanism exhibited by biological organisms such as jellyfish and squid for swimming via jet propulsion. An impact of the viscous gap-flow dynamics on such passive flapping modes and vice versa is not well understood for the side-by-side elastic foil system. In the present work, we explore the mutual interaction of two side-by-side elastic foils performing flapping motion with the viscous gap-flow via a high-order finite element based fluid-elastic formulation with an exact tracking of fluid-foil interface. We show that the gap-flow exhibits pulsating flow with higher net drag for the passive out-of-phase coupled mode compared to the in-phase flapping where it exhibits uniform flow rate. Three distinct gap-flow velocity patterns are identified as functions of the coupled flapping modes: (i) unsteady symmetrical gap-flow with variable gap for the out-of-phase, (ii) unsteady alternating biased asymmetrical gap-flow with a uniform gap for the in-phase, and (iii) unsteady alternating biased asymmetrical gap-flow with variable gap for the mixed in-phase and out-of-phase. We examine the role of the gap-flow on the coupled fluid-elastic instability and the passive flapping modes. Two side-by-side elastic foils can experience significantly lower drag compared to their single foil counterpart and the two side-by-side rigid foils by undergoing static outward deformation. We utilize this phenomenon to understand the greater propensity of the flapping instability of the two side-by-side elastic foils in contrast to their single foil counterpart. We show that the coupled system does not exhibit the out-of-phase flapping if there is no gap-flow between the foils. We also find that two elastic foils when placed in proximity to each other always lose their stability to exhibit the out-of-phase coupling irrespective of whether the fully developed flapping exhibits in-phase or the out-of-phase flapping. The transition from the initial out-of-phase to the in-phase flapping is characterized by the loss of symmetry in the jet-like gap flow at the exit area of the side-by-side foils.     

Control structure interaction in the nonlinear analysis of flexible mechanical systems

The effect of the control structure interaction on the feedforward control law as well as the dynamics of flexible mechanical systems is examined in this investigation. An inverse dynamics procedure is developed for the analysis of the dynamic motion of interconnected rigid and flexible bodies. This method is used to examine the effect of the elastic deformation on the driving forces in flexible mechanical systems. The driving forces are expressed in terms of the specified motion trajectories and the deformations of the elastic members. The system equations of motion are formulated using Lagrange's equation. A finite element discretization of the flexible bodies is used to define the deformation degrees of freedom. The algebraic constraint equations that describe the motion trajectories and joint constraints between adjacent bodies are adjoined to the system differential equations of motion using the vector of Lagrange multipliers. A unique displacement field is then identified by imposing an appropriate set of reference conditions. The effect of the nonlinear centrifugal and Coriolis forces that depend on the body displacements and velocities are taken into consideration. A direct numerical integration method coupled with a Newton-Raphson algorithm is used to solve the resulting nonlinear differential and algebraic equations of motion. The formulation obtained for the flexible mechanical system is compared with the rigid body dynamic formulation. The effect of the sampling time, number of vibration modes, the viscous damping, and the selection of the constrained modes are examined. The results presented in this numerical study demonstrate that the use of the driving forees obtained using the rigid body analysis can lead to a significant error when these forces are used as the feedforward control law for the flexible mechanical system. The analysis presented in this investigation differs significantly from previously published work in many ways. It includes the effect of the structural flexibility on the centrifugal and Coriolis forces, it accounts for all inertia nonlinearities resulting from the coupling between the rigid body and elastic displacements, it uses a precise definition of the equipollent systems of forces in flexible body dynamics, it demonstrates the use of general purpose multibody computer codes in the feedforward control of flexible mechanical systems, and it demonstrates numerically the effect of the selected set of constrained modes on the feedforward control law.     

Simulation of incompressible viscous flows around moving objects by a variant of immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann method

A variant of immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann method (IB‐LBM) is presented in this paper to simulate incompressible viscous flows around moving objects. As compared with the conventional IB‐LBM where the force density is computed explicitly by Hook's law or the direct forcing method and the non‐slip condition is only approximately satisfied, in the present work, the force density term is considered as the velocity correction which is determined by enforcing the non‐slip condition at the boundary. The lift and drag forces on the moving object can be easily calculated via the velocity correction on the boundary points. The capability of the present method for moving objects is well demonstrated through its application to simulate flows around a moving circular cylinder, a rotationally oscillating cylinder, and an elliptic flapping wing. Furthermore, the simulation of flows around a flapping flexible airfoil is carried out to exhibit the ability of the present method for implementing the elastic boundary condition. It was found that under certain conditions, the flapping flexible airfoil can generate larger propulsive force than the flapping rigid airfoil. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Introducing unsteady non‐uniform source terms into the lattice Boltzmann model

Taking body forces into account is not new for the lattice Boltzmann method, yet most of the existing approaches can only treat steady and uniform body forces. To manage situations with time‐ and space‐dependent body forces or source terms, this paper proposes a new approach through theoretical derivation and numerical verification. The method by attaching an extra term to the lattice Boltzmann equation is still used, but the expression of the extra term is modified. It is the modified extra term that achieves the particularity of the new approach. This approach can not only introduce unsteady and non‐uniform body forces into momentum equations, but is also able to add an arbitrary source term to the continuity equation. Both the macroscopic equations from multi‐scale analysis and the simulated results of typical examples show that the accuracy with second‐order convergence can be guaranteed within incompressible limit. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Levitation of Magnets and Paramagnetic Bodies in Vessels Filled with Magnetic Fluid

Formulas are obtained for the forces and moments acting on a spherical body made of a paramagnetic material in an uniform applied magnetic field and a magnet in a spherical vessel filled with magnetic fluid. An approximate formula is found for the force acting on bodies in ellipsoidal and cylindrical vessels or in a plane channel with a magnetic fluid in an uniform magnetic field. An analogy between the forces acting on a magnet and a paramagnetic body is demonstrated. The possibility of levitation of magnets and paramagnetic bodies in a vessel with a magnetic fluid is investigated.     

A new method for direct simulations of flexible filament suspensions in non‐zero Reynolds number flows

A new method for direct simulations of flexible filament suspensions in a non‐zero Reynolds number flow is developed. For fluid domain, simulations are based on a lattice Boltzmann equation. For solid domain, a slender solid body is discretized into a chain of consecutive spherical segments contacting each other. A constraint force algorithm is proposed to warrant constant bonding distance between two neighbouring segments and non‐slip velocity conditions at the contacting points so that the flexible filament moves and rotates as a whole body. The fibre could be bent and twisted in the model. Non‐linear inertial interactions between fluid and flexible filament can be naturally studied by using this model embedded in the lattice Boltzmann scheme. The present flexible fibre method is tested by using a rigid particle method when the fibre stiffness is very large and by comparing the present results with theoretical and experimental results. It is demonstrated that the present results have a reasonable accuracy and that the computational results are consistent with the existed experimental results at non‐zero Reynolds number flows. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of the deformation in the inertia forces on the inverse dynamics of planar flexible mechanical systems

The inverse dynamics problem for articulated structural systems such as robotic manipulators is the problem of the determination of the joint actuator forces and motor torques such that the system components follow specified motion trajectories. In many of the previous investigations, the open loop control law was established using an inverse dynamics procedure in which the centrifugal and Coriolis inertia forces are linearized such that these forces in the flexible model are the same as those in the rigid body model. In some other investigations, the effect of the nonlinear centrifugal and Coriolis forces is neglected in the analysis and control system design of articulated structural systems. It is the objective of this investigation to study the effect of the linearization of the centrifugal and Coriolis forces on the nonlinear dynamics of constrained flexible mechanical systems. The virtual work of the inertia forces is used to define the complete nonlinear centrifugal and Coriolis force model. This nonlinear model that depends on the rate of the finite rotation and the elastic deformation of the deformable bodies is used to obtain the solution of the inverse dynamics problem, thus defining the joint torques that produce the desired motion trajectories. The effect of the linearization of the mass matrix as well as the centrifugal and Coriolis forces on the obtained feedforward control law is examined numerically. The results presented in this investigation are obtained using a slider crank mechanism with a flexible connecting rod.     

A coupled immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann method with smoothed point interpolation method for fluid‐structure interaction problems

The immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann method has been verified to be an effective tool for fluid‐structure interaction simulation associated with thin and flexible bodies. The newly developed smoothed point interpolation method (S‐PIM) can handle the largely deformable solids owing to its softened model stiffness and insensitivity to mesh distortion. In this work, a novel coupled method has been proposed by combining the immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann method with the S‐PIM for fluid‐structure interaction problems with large‐displacement solids. The proposed method preserves the simplicity of the lattice Boltzmann method for fluid solvers, utilizes the S‐PIM to establish the realistic constitutive laws for nonlinear solids, and avoids mesh regeneration based on the frame of the immersed boundary method. Both two‐ and three‐dimensional numerical examples have been carried out to validate the accuracy, convergence, and stability of the proposed method in consideration of comparative results with referenced solutions.     

徐州矿区采空塌陷区公路工程地质灾害与防治对策分析

采用格子Boltzmann方法模拟可变形膜与周围流体的相互作用. 分析了格子Boltzmann 方法中的边界处理方法和边界受力的计算方法，并且用此方法计算流场中可变形膜的受力. 可将离散化后的膜看作一系列的质点，从而得到膜的动力学方程. 将可变形膜在流场中受到 的力引入方程中，可以计算膜的变形. 求解了几种不同情况下，膜的形状随时间的变化. 发现，如果可变形膜非常软或者非常硬，经过足够长的时间后，膜的形状会接近一 条直线，即回到初始状态. 模拟过程是二阶精度的.     

Application of the lattice‐Boltzmann method to study flow and dispersion in channels with and without expansion and contraction geometry

The lattice‐Boltzmann (LB) method, derived from lattice gas automata, is a relatively new technique for studying transport problems. The LB method is investigated for its accuracy to study fluid dynamics and dispersion problems. Two problems of relevance to flow and dispersion in porous media are addressed: (i) Poiseuille flow between parallel plates (which is analogous to flow in pore throats in two‐dimensional porous networks), and (ii) flow through an expansion–contraction geometry (which is analogous to flow in pore bodies in two‐dimensional porous networks). The results obtained from the LB simulations are compared with analytical solutions when available, and with solutions obtained from a finite element code (FIDAP) when analytical results are not available. Excellent agreement is found between the LB results and the analytical/FIDAP solutions in most cases, indicating the utility of the lattice‐Boltzmann method for solving fluid dynamics and dispersion problems. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

扑翼柔性及其对气动特性的影响

以往对扑翼气动特性的研究基本上都是基于简单的匀速刚性模型,但是通过大量观察不同飞鸟的扑翼动作发现,该模型与鸟翼的实际扑动还有很大差别。鸟翼不但上扑段和下扑段所需时间不同,而且在扑动过程中,鸟翼的形状无论沿弦向或展向都存在着相当大的柔性变形。本文在原有匀速刚性模型的基础上,加入了扑动速率变化和形状变化的影响,得出新的变速柔性扑翼分析模型,使之更接近鸟翼柔性扑动的真实情况。通过对比计算发现,柔性变形对扑翼的升力与推力都有着显著影响,如果控制得当,柔性变形能大大改善扑翼的气动性能。     

A hybrid immersed‐boundary and multi‐block lattice Boltzmann method for simulating fluid and moving‐boundaries interactions

A numerical method is developed for modelling the interactions between incompressible viscous fluid and moving boundaries. The principle of this method is introducing the immersed‐boundary concept in the framework of the lattice Boltzmann method, and improving the accuracy and efficiency of the simulation by refining the mesh near moving boundaries. Besides elastic boundary with a constitutive law, the method can also efficiently simulate solid moving‐boundary interacting with fluid by employing the direct forcing technique. The method is validated by the simulations of flow past a circular cylinder, two cylinders moving with respect to each other and flow around a hovering wing. The versatility of the method is demonstrated by the numerical studies including elastic filament flapping in the wake of a cylinder and fish‐like bodies swimming in quiescent fluid. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unsteady bio-fluid dynamics in flying and swimming

Flying and swimming in nature present sophisticated and exciting ventures in biomimetics, which seeks sustainable solutions and solves practical problems by emulating nature's time-tested patterns, functions, and strategies. Bio-fluids in insect and bird flight, as well as in fish swimming are highly dynamic and unsteady; however, they have been studied mostly with a focus on the phenomena associated with a body or wings moving in a steady flow. Characterized by unsteady wing flapping and body undulation, fluid-structure interactions, flexible wings and bodies, turbulent environments, and complex maneuver, bio-fluid dynamics normally have challenges associated with low Reynolds number regime and high unsteadiness in modeling and analysis of flow physics. In this article, we review and highlight recent advances in unsteady bio-fluid dynamics in terms of leading-edge vortices, passive mechanisms in flexible wings and hinges, flapping flight in unsteady environments, and micro-structured aerodynamics in flapping flight, as well as undulatory swimming, flapping-fin hydrodynamics, body–fin interac-tion, C-start and maneuvering, swimming in turbulence,collective swimming, and micro-structured hydrodynamics in swimming. We further give a perspective outlook on future challenges and tasks of several key issues of the field.     

柔性微粒介电泳分离过程的多尺度模拟

介电泳分离是一种高效的微细颗粒分离技术,利用非均匀电场极化并操纵分离微流道中的颗粒. 柔性微粒在介电泳分离过程中同时受多种物理场、多相流和微粒变形等复杂因素的影响,仅用单一的计算方法对其进行模拟存在一定的难度,本文采用有限单元——格子玻尔兹曼耦合计算的方法处理这一难题.介观尺度的格子玻尔兹曼方法将流体看成由大量微小粒子组成,在离散格子上求解玻尔兹曼输运方程,易于处理多相流及大变形问题,特别适合模拟柔性颗粒在介电泳分离过程中的变形情况.另一方面,介电泳分离过程的模拟需求解流体、电场和微粒运动方程,计算量相当庞大,通过有限单元法求解介电泳力,提高计算效率.利用这种多尺度耦合计算方法,对一款现有的介电泳芯片分离过程进行了模拟.分析了微粒在电场作用下产生的介电泳力,揭示了介电泳力与电场变化率等因素之间的关系.对微粒运动轨迹及其变形的情况进行了研究,发现微粒的变形主要与流体剪切作用有关.这种多尺度耦合计算方法,为复杂微流体的计算提供了一种有效的解决方案.      

A three dimensional implicit immersed boundary method with application

Most algorithms of the immersed boundary method originated by Peskin are explicit when it comes to the computation of the elastic forces exerted by the immersed boundary to the fluid. A drawback of such an explicit approach is a severe restriction on the time step size for maintaining numerical stability. An implicit immersed boundary method in two dimensions using the lattice Boltzmann approach has been proposed. This paper reports an extension of the method to three dimensions and its application to simulation of a massive flexible sheet interacting with an incompressible viscous flow.