Computational and experimental investigation of aerodynamic characteristics of biologically inspired flapping wings

Ever since the early days, man has always admired flying creatures which inspired human to attempt to build a flying machine. The design complication always higher in flapping type of mechanism compared with fixed mechanism, irrespective of sizes of an airplane. In current scenario flapping wing micro air vehicles (MAVs) are used in several different areas for different applications. In this paper focused on analysis an aerodynamics characterization of flapping wing arrangement used for MAV applications. The bio-inspired flapping wing had chosen to analysis the changes of the flow pattern over the flapping wings. The computational method and experimental methods are used to carry out the results. The wing for analysis were inspired from the great black-backed seagull, which has high aspect ratio wings with pointed wingtips and a high camber wing section. A scaled-down model was considered to complete the experimental analysis. The 3-dimensional wing model made with the help of 3-d printed airfoils. The various aerodynamic parameters were calculated and compared.