Experimental investigation of propulsion characteristic of flapping-wing MAV

In order to investigate the effect of aspect ration and stiffness and camber of flapping-wing on thrust force characteristic, the wind tunnel test of Flapping-wing MAV (Micro air vehicle) was performed in special micro air vehicle wind tunnel of NPU(North-western Polytechnical University). The rectangular wing which has the aspect ration of 2, 4.5 and 7 and cambered aerofoil and flat aerofoil were fabricated. Structure strength of three different stiffness rectangular flapping-wings was analysed. The velocity (from 4 m/s to 10 m/s) and flapping frequency (between 4 Hz to 8 Hz) were applied for test. In this experiment we find it improves thrust efficiency of flapping-wing through increase aspect ration or decrease stiffness of flapping-wing. It is disadvantageous to thrust characteristic through increase camber of airfoil.