Aerodynamics of flapping wing MAV The question which I got from the panel was how to calculate the Reynolds number ?..the ans is by claculating MAC Mean Aerodynamic Chord

1. Aerodynamics of Flapping Wing
MAV
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Guided by,
Dr. Ajith Kumar R
Professor
Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,
Amritapuri
Presented By,
ADARSH B G
AM.EN.P2TF17001

2. Introduction
Micro Air Vehicle is defined as a small, portable flying
vehicle which is designed for performing useful work.
They have the potential to revolutionize our sensing and
information gathering capabilities in areas such as
environmental monitoring and homeland security
They are less than 15 cm in any dimension and weight
including payload less than 100 grams.
Two approaches have been followed
• Propeller driven test
• Direct mimicry of birds
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3. 3
MAV Flight regime compared to existing flight vehicles

4. Types of MAV
There are basically three types of MAVs
 Fixed wing micro aerial vehicles.
• Fixed wing micro aerial vehicles, fly at higher speeds (6-
20m/s) at Reynolds numbers from about 45 000 to 180 000
and at altitudes from (98 to 328 ft).
• They have the distinct disadvantage of not able to hover or
fly at very low speeds hence they are not suitable for indoor
applications.
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5. Rotary wing micro aerial vehicles.
• Rotary wing MAV’S are able to fly at quite high speeds, hover,
and execute vertical take-off and landing (VTOL).
• They are perfect for indoor flight and short-range
reconnaissance.
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6. Flapping wing micro aerial vehicles.
• Flapping wing MAV’S comprises of
o Ornithopter (inspired by birds)
o Entomopter (inspired by insects)
oOrnithopter
 They imitate bird wing kinematics
 They lift by flapping wings up and down by synchronised
variation of angle of incidence
 They cannot hover ,needed an initial air speed for take off
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7. oEntomopters
 Uses the kinematics of insects for flying
 They have large and rapid change of angle of incidence at end
of each stroke
 They don’t need any initial air speed for lift off
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8. Components of Flapping Wing MAV
• Slider crank mechanism
• Dc brushless motor
• MEMS
• Receiver and Transmitter
• Battery
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9. Kinematics Of Flapping Wing
 Aerodynamics of Flapping Wing
• It is considered as an unsteady aerodynamic flow
• There are three basic motions
 Flapping
 Feathering
 Lead-lag
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10. Flapping Wing mechanism
• It involves two stages-Down stroke & Upstroke
 The wing beat frequency is correlated by the following
formula
where m is the bird's body mass, g is the acceleration
due to gravity, b is the wing span, S is the wing area
and ρ is the air density.
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11. Performance Characteristics of MAV
Efficiency vs. RPM Thrust vs. RPM
Thrust vs power of Propeller.
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12. Application
• For detecting gas leaks and nuclear radiation
• Over the hill reconnaissance
• Police forces when they want to see inside a building
discretely for example during a hostage situation.
• Entomopters to explore Mars is a project already underway.
• Tracking of chemicals.
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13. Conclusion
• Endurance and manoeuvrability are the major concerns in
the manufacturing of micro air vehicles
• Complexities and reduced efficiencies of flapping wing
mechanism and high power consumption are the present
drawbacks
• Research works on improving the performance such as flight
times and payload capabilitiy of MAV’s are still going on.
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14. Reference
• Luca petricca, per ohlckers and Christopher grinde , “Micro-
nano –air vehicles :state of art.Hindawi publishing
corporation” , September 2010.
• Joel M. Grasmeyer and Matthew T. Keennon, “Development
of the Black Widow Micro Air Vehicle”. American institute of
aeronautics ”, September 2001.
• H.Wu, D. Sun, and Z. Zhou, “Micro air vehicle: configuration,
analysis, fabrication, and test,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on
Mechatronics, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 108–117, 2004.
• K. P. Preethi Manohari Sai, K. Bharadwaj, K. Ravi Teja,
“Design, Fabrication and Testing Of Flapping Wing Micro Air
Vehicle” ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 6, Issue 1, (Part – 3) January
2016, pp.133-150
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15. ThankYou
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