Aerodynamic researchof flexible flappingwing by combining dic and cfd approaches

The aerodynamic performance of flexible flapping wing is researched by combining Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and CFD approaches in this paper. The aerodynamic characteristics is complex for flapping wing micro air vehicles because they always use flexible wings, which will deform in flapping flight under the effect of aerodynamic and inertial forces. The relations among deformation and forces are mutual influence. In actually, the deformation is difficult to be obtained for its instantaneous characteristics. DIC technique can solve this problem by combine with the high-speed imaging devices. After the deforming process is obtained in a high-precision manner, the flow features can be simulated in a detail way by numerical method accordingly. The numerical results can be validated by compare with the experimental data. This method has highly temporal and spatial resolutions; the temporal resolution is obtained by DIC technique and the spatial resolution by CFD simulation. And it can be used to measure and analyze directly the characteristic parameters of flexible flapping wing, such as the relation and influence mechanism between deformation and aerodynamic forces.