Abstract
The development of flapping wing micro air vehicles (MAVs) has yielded remarkable progress over the last decades. Achieving high component stiffness is often in conflict with low weight requirement, which is highly desirable for longer flight time and higher payload. Moreover, vibration originated predominantly from the wings, gears and frames excitations, may compromise the flapping wing MAV’s stability and fatigue life. In order to improve the vehicle’s efficiency and performance, optimization of these various parameters is necessary. In this work, we present the structural optimization of a flapping wing micro air vehicle. We focus particularly on the gearbox optimization using Simulia Tosca Structure in Abaqus, which is a robust tool for designing lightweight, rigid and durable components. Various numerical experiments have been conducted towards optimizing the components’ topology, aimed at increasing the stiffness and reducing weight. The finding and results provide a better understanding of the optimal design topology for a spur gear among other structural components used in MAVs.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ansari SA, Knowles K, Zbikowski R (2008) Insectlike flapping wings in the hover part II: effect of wing geometry. J Aircr 45:1976–1990. doi:10.2514/1.35697
Berman GJ, Wang ZJ (2007) Energy-minimizing kinematics in hovering insect flight. J Fluid Mech 582:153–168
Chaudhuri A, Haftka RT, Ifju P, Chang K, Tyler C, Schmitz T (2015) Experimental flapping wing optimization and uncertainty quantification using limited samples. Struct Multidiscip Optim 51:957–970
Dickinson MH, Lehmann F-O, Sane SP (1999) Wing rotation and the aerodynamic basis of insect flight. Science 284:1954–1960. doi:10.1126/science.284.5422.1954
Johnsen S (2013) Structural topology optimization: basic theory, methods and applications. Master’s thesis, Institutt for produktutvikling og materialer
Jones MA (2013) CFD analysis and design optimization of flapping wing flows. Doctoral dissertation, North Carolina A&T State University
Karásek M, Koopmans AJ, Armanini SF, Remes BD, de Croon GC (2016) Free flight force estimation of a 23.5 g flapping wing MAV using an on-board IMU intelligent robots and systems (IROS), 2016 IEEE/RSJ international conference on. IEEE, pp 4963–4969
Le TQ, Truong TV, Tran HT et al (2014) How could Beetle's elytra support their own weight during forward flight? J Bionic Eng 11:529–540
Liu J, Ma Y (2016) A survey of manufacturing oriented topology optimization methods. Adv Eng Softw 100:161–175
Liu J, Cheng Z, Ma Y (2016) Product design-optimization integration via associative optimization feature modeling. Adv Eng Inform 30:713–727
Matthew K, Karl K, Henry W (2012) Development of the Nano hummingbird: a tailless flapping wing micro air vehicle. 50th AIAA aerospace sciences meeting including the new horizons forum and aerospace exposition. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nashville
Negrello F, Silvestri P, Lucifredi A, Guerrero JE, Bottaro A (2016) Preliminary design of a small-sized flapping UAV: II. Kinematic and structural aspects. Meccanica 51:1369–1385
Nguyen Q-V, Chan WL, Debiasi M (2015) An insect-inspired flapping wing micro air vehicle with double wing clap-fling effects and capability of sustained hovering SPIE smart structures and materials+ nondestructive evaluation and health monitoring. International Society for Optics and Photonics, pp 94290U-94290U-94211
Phan HV, Nguyen QV, Truong QT et al (2012) Stable vertical takeoff of an insect-mimicking flapping-wing system without guide implementing inherent pitching stability. J Bionic Eng 9:391–401
Potes F, Silva J, Gamboa P (2016) Development and characterization of a natural lightweight composite solution for aircraft structural applications. Compos Struct 136:430–440
Qin Y, Cheng B, Deng X (2014) Trajectory optimization of flapping wings modeled as a three degree-of-freedoms oscillation system 2014 IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systems. IEEE, pp 3193–3200
Ryan M, Su H-J (2012) Classification of flapping wing mechanisms for micro air vehicles ASME 2012 international design engineering technical conferences and computers and information in engineering conference. Am Soc Mech Eng:105–115
Saleem W, Lu H, Yuqing F (2008) Topology optimization-problem formulation and pragmatic outcomes by integration of TOSCA and CAE tools proceedings of the world congress on engineering and computer science. Citeseer
SIMULIA-Abaqus (2015) Manual, Dassault Syst’emes Simulia
SIMULIA-Tosca (2015) Manual, Dassault Systemes Simulia
Søndergaard MB, Pedersen CB (2014) Applied topology optimization of vibro-acoustic hearing instrument models. J Sound Vib 333:683–692
Stanford B, Beran P, Kobayashi M (2013) Simultaneous topology optimization of membrane wings and their compliant flapping mechanisms. AIAA J 51:1431–1441
Tanaka H, Shimoyama I (2010) Forward flight of swallowtail butterfly with simple flapping motion. Bioinspir Biomim 5:026003
Truong TV, Le TQ, Tran HT, Park HC, Yoon KJ, Byun D (2012) Flow visualization of rhinoceros beetle (Trypoxylus dichotomus) in free flight. J Bionic Eng 9:304–314
Truong TV, Doyoung B, Min Jun K, Kwang Joon Y, Hoon Cheol P (2013a) Aerodynamic forces and flow structures of the leading edge vortex on a flapping wing considering ground effect. Bioinspir Biomim 8:036007
Truong TV, Kim J, Kim M, Park H, Yoon K, Byun D (2013b) Flow structures around a flapping wing considering ground effect. Exp Fluids 54:1–19. doi:10.1007/s00348-013-1575-6
Truong TV, Le TQ, Park HC, Yoon KJ, Kim MJ, Byun D (2014) Non-jumping take off performance in beetle flight (rhinoceros beetle Trypoxylus dichotomus). J Bionic Eng 11:61–71
Ward TA, Rezadad M, Fearday CJ, Viyapuri R (2015) A review of biomimetic air vehicle research: 1984-2014. Int J Micro Air Veh 7:375–394
Zhao X, Liu Y, Hua L, Mao H (2016) Finite element analysis and topology optimization of a 12000KN fine blanking press frame. Struct Multidiscip Optim :1–15
Zhou M, Alexandersen J, Sigmund O, Pedersen CB (2016) Industrial application of topology optimization for combined conductive and convective heat transfer problems. Struct Multidiscip Optim 54:1045–1060
Acknowledgements
The authors would acknowledge to Dr. Quoc-Viet Nguyen of the Temasek laboratory@NUS for his support in fabrication.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Van Truong, T., Kureemun, U., Tan, V.B.C. et al. Study on the structural optimization of a flapping wing micro air vehicle. Struct Multidisc Optim 57, 653–664 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-017-1772-7
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-017-1772-7