Computational Approach for the Fluid-Structure Interaction Design of Insect-Inspired Micro Flapping Wings

Abstract

A flight device for insect-inspired flapping wing nano air vehicles (FWNAVs), which consists of the micro wings, the actuator, and the transmission, can use the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) to create the characteristic motions of the flapping wings. This design will be essential for further miniaturization of FWNAVs, since it will reduce the mechanical and electrical complexities of the flight device. Computational approaches will be necessary for this biomimetic concept because of the complexity of the FSI. Hence, in this study, a computational approach for the FSI design of insect-inspired micro flapping wings is proposed. This approach consists of a direct numerical modeling of the strongly coupled FSI, the dynamic similarity framework, and the design window (DW) search. The present numerical examples demonstrated that the dynamic similarity framework works well to make different two FSI systems with the strong coupling dynamically similar to each other, and this framework works as the guideline for the systematic investigation of the effect of characteristic parameters on the FSI system. Finally, an insect-inspired micro flapping wing with the 2.5-dimensional structure was designed using the proposed approach such that it can create the lift sufficient to support the weight of small insects. The existing area of satisfactory design solutions or the DW increases the fabricability of this wing using micromachining techniques based on the photolithography in the micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Hence, the proposed approach will contribute to the further miniaturization of FWNAVs.

Keywords

• insect flapping flight
• fluid-structure interaction design
• flapping wing nano air vehicle (FWNAV)
• computational biomimetics
• finite element method