Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight

Migratory birds have the ability to save energy during flight by arranging themselves in a V-formation. This arrangement enables an increase in the overall efficiency of the group because the wake vortices shed by each of the birds provide additional lift and thrust to every member. Therefore, the a...

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محفوظ في:
التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
المؤلف الرئيسي: Billingsley, Ethan (author)
مؤلفون آخرون: Ghommem, Mehdi (author), Vasconcellos, Rui (author), Abdelkefi, Abdessattar (author)
التنسيق: article
منشور في: 2021
الموضوعات:
الوصول للمادة أونلاين:http://hdl.handle.net/11073/23912
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author Billingsley, Ethan
author2 Ghommem, Mehdi
Vasconcellos, Rui
Abdelkefi, Abdessattar
author2_role author
author
author
author_facet Billingsley, Ethan
Ghommem, Mehdi
Vasconcellos, Rui
Abdelkefi, Abdessattar
author_role author
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Billingsley, Ethan
Ghommem, Mehdi
Vasconcellos, Rui
Abdelkefi, Abdessattar
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2021
2022-06-07T06:40:17Z
2022-06-07T06:40:17Z
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv Billingsley, E.; Ghommem, M.; Vasconcellos, R.; Abdelkefi, A. Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight. Drones 2021, 5, 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones5030090. [Comment: This article belongs to the Special Issue Aerodynamics, Stability, Guidance, Navigation and Control of Micro-Air Vehicles: Recent Advances and Challenges]
2504-446X
http://hdl.handle.net/11073/23912
10.3390/drones5030090
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv en_US
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.3390/drones5030090
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Flapping wings
Formation flight
Active morphing
Aerodynamic performance
V-shape arrangement
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Peer-Reviewed
Published version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
description Migratory birds have the ability to save energy during flight by arranging themselves in a V-formation. This arrangement enables an increase in the overall efficiency of the group because the wake vortices shed by each of the birds provide additional lift and thrust to every member. Therefore, the aerodynamic advantages of such a flight arrangement can be exploited in the design process of micro air vehicles. One significant difference when comparing the anatomy of birds to the design of most micro air vehicles is that bird wings are not completely rigid. Birds have the ability to actively morph their wings during the flapping cycle. Given these aspects of avian flight, the objective of this work is to incorporate active bending and torsion into multiple pairs of flapping wings arranged in a V-formation and to investigate their aerodynamic behavior using the unsteady vortex lattice method. To do so, the first two bending and torsional mode shapes of a cantilever beam are considered and the aerodynamic characteristics of morphed wings for a range of V-formation angles, while changing the group size in order to determine the optimal configuration that results in maximum propulsive efficiency, are examined. The aerodynamic simulator incorporating the prescribed morphing is qualitatively verified using experimental data taken from trained kestrel flights. The simulation results demonstrate that coupled bending and twisting of the first mode shape yields the highest propulsive efficiency over a range of formation angles. Furthermore, the optimal configuration in terms of propulsive efficiency is found to be a five-body V-formation incorporating coupled bending and twisting of the first mode at a formation angle of 140 degrees. These results indicate the potential improvement in the aerodynamic performance of the formation flight when introducing active morphing and bioinspiration.
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identifier_str_mv Billingsley, E.; Ghommem, M.; Vasconcellos, R.; Abdelkefi, A. Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight. Drones 2021, 5, 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones5030090. [Comment: This article belongs to the Special Issue Aerodynamics, Stability, Guidance, Navigation and Control of Micro-Air Vehicles: Recent Advances and Challenges]
2504-446X
10.3390/drones5030090
language_invalid_str_mv en_US
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spelling Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation FlightBillingsley, EthanGhommem, MehdiVasconcellos, RuiAbdelkefi, AbdessattarFlapping wingsFormation flightActive morphingAerodynamic performanceV-shape arrangementMigratory birds have the ability to save energy during flight by arranging themselves in a V-formation. This arrangement enables an increase in the overall efficiency of the group because the wake vortices shed by each of the birds provide additional lift and thrust to every member. Therefore, the aerodynamic advantages of such a flight arrangement can be exploited in the design process of micro air vehicles. One significant difference when comparing the anatomy of birds to the design of most micro air vehicles is that bird wings are not completely rigid. Birds have the ability to actively morph their wings during the flapping cycle. Given these aspects of avian flight, the objective of this work is to incorporate active bending and torsion into multiple pairs of flapping wings arranged in a V-formation and to investigate their aerodynamic behavior using the unsteady vortex lattice method. To do so, the first two bending and torsional mode shapes of a cantilever beam are considered and the aerodynamic characteristics of morphed wings for a range of V-formation angles, while changing the group size in order to determine the optimal configuration that results in maximum propulsive efficiency, are examined. The aerodynamic simulator incorporating the prescribed morphing is qualitatively verified using experimental data taken from trained kestrel flights. The simulation results demonstrate that coupled bending and twisting of the first mode shape yields the highest propulsive efficiency over a range of formation angles. Furthermore, the optimal configuration in terms of propulsive efficiency is found to be a five-body V-formation incorporating coupled bending and twisting of the first mode at a formation angle of 140 degrees. These results indicate the potential improvement in the aerodynamic performance of the formation flight when introducing active morphing and bioinspiration.Brazilian agency CAPESMDPI2022-06-07T06:40:17Z2022-06-07T06:40:17Z2021Peer-ReviewedPublished versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfBillingsley, E.; Ghommem, M.; Vasconcellos, R.; Abdelkefi, A. Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight. Drones 2021, 5, 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones5030090. [Comment: This article belongs to the Special Issue Aerodynamics, Stability, Guidance, Navigation and Control of Micro-Air Vehicles: Recent Advances and Challenges]2504-446Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/11073/2391210.3390/drones5030090en_UShttps://doi.org/10.3390/drones5030090oai:repository.aus.edu:11073/239122024-08-22T12:09:09Z
spellingShingle Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight
Billingsley, Ethan
Flapping wings
Formation flight
Active morphing
Aerodynamic performance
V-shape arrangement
status_str publishedVersion
title Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight
title_full Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight
title_fullStr Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight
title_full_unstemmed Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight
title_short Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight
title_sort Role of Active Morphing in the Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings in Formation Flight
topic Flapping wings
Formation flight
Active morphing
Aerodynamic performance
V-shape arrangement
url http://hdl.handle.net/11073/23912