Computational Study of Fluid-Structure Interaction on Flapping Wing under Passive Pitching Motion

Abstract

During the past few decades, various fluid–structure interaction (FSI) analysis approaches have been developed and applied to understand the physical processes related to a flexible flapping wing. In this paper, a dynamic shell analysis based on a corotational (CR) formulation is developed. Geometrically nonlinear dynamic shell formulation based on the CR framework is derived from Lagrange’s equation of motion. This brand new shell formulation is implicitly combined with a preconditioned Navier–Stokes solution for a relevant FSI analysis. Specifically, the shell analysis is extended to a multibody dynamic approach to facilitate the passive pitching motion of a flapping wing. The present analysis is validated by a comparison with the results from either previous analyses or experiments. The effect of a passive pitching motion on a flapping wing is also investigated. Finally, it is found that the presented dynamic shell analysis can enable accurate predictions, and the relevant passive pitching motion of a spanwise flexible wing may be advantageous for generating several aerodynamic loads that are applicable for the control forces of a micro aerial vehicle.