Engineering Transactions, 64, 2, pp. 181–196, 2016
10.24423/engtrans.349.2016

Dynamic Analysis and Optimization of a Bionic Flapping-Wing Aircraft

Xiaoyi JIN
Shanghai University of Engineering Science
China

Xiaolei ZHOU
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science
China

Peipei TIAN
Shanghai University of Engineering Science
China

Liqiang ZHANG
Shanghai University of Engineering Science
China

Zhengwei NIE
University of Missouri
United States

This research has been conducted for the purpose of developing bionic flapping-wing aircraft. In this paper, wings are regarded as flexible, and the response issues of wings under certain excitation functions are investigated. The research is based on preliminary studies about bionic flapping wings and aims to provide data references to aid the selection of electrical actuators and the design of driving mechanisms for bionic flapping-wing aircraft at a later stage. The dynamic analysis shows that the response functions adapt well to the flapping movements of the wings. However, there are mutational situations in the wing structure transformation which are bad for structural stability, and cause there to be too little lift force.Under such circumstances, the minimum norm of low-order vibration mode difference values is used as the optimization principle to conduct the structural optimization. The optimization results and the wing flutter test both show that the optimized wings can better avoid structural mutations and their response functions can also better meet the design requirements.
Keywords: bionic flapping-wing aircraft; flexible wings; structural mutation; structural optimization; flutter test
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Copyright © Polish Academy of Sciences & Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (IPPT PAN).

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DOI: 10.24423/engtrans.349.2016