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Effect of acceleration on aerodynamic performance of flapping wing air vehicle

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Abstract

The acceleration effect on aerodynamic performance of flapping wing air vehicle (FWAV) is studied. A multi-degree-of-freedom three-dimensional bionic flapping wing motion model with an acceleration effect is established, and the aerodynamic performance is computed using Ansys Fluent. The aerodynamic coefficient variations are combined to reveal the aerodynamic and the pressure distribution characteristics at the transient and peak moment under different acceleration coefficient. The results show that compared with conventional flapping motion, the acceleration effect can significantly increase the aerodynamic lift and thrust. The accelerated downstroke of the flapping wing changes the intensity of LEV and TEV, and increases the eddy current adhesion area of the upper surface of the wing. The acceleration effect also increases the capture effect of the last cycle LEV shedding of the flapping wing, thus significantly improving aerodynamic performance of the flapping wing.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors disclose receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was support by the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province of China (No. 2022-BS-216), Aeronautical Science Foundation of China (No. 2020Z006054002), and Scientific research fund project of Liaoning Provincial Department of Education (No. JYT2020122).

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Correspondence to Gong Changquan.

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Zhandong, L., Changquan, G., Xinyu, Z. et al. Effect of acceleration on aerodynamic performance of flapping wing air vehicle. J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 46, 32 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-023-04589-w

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