《Membrane wing aerodynamics for micro air vehicles》.pdf

ARTICLE IN PRESS Progress in Aerospace Sciences 39 (2003) 425–465 Membrane wing aerodynamics for micro air vehicles Yongsheng Lian, Wei Shyy*, Dragos Viieru, Baoning Zhang Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida, 231 Aerospace Building P.O. Box 116250, Gainesville, FL 32611-6250, USA Abstract 6 4 The aerodynamic performance of a wing deteriorates considerably as the Reynolds number decreases from 10 to 10 : In particular, flow separation can result in substantial change in effective airfoil shape and cause reduced aerodynamic performance. Lately, there has been growing interest in developing suitable techniques for sustained and robust flight of micro air vehicles (MAVs) wit ha wingspan of 15 cm or smaller, flight speed around 10 m=s; and a corresponding Reynolds number of 104 5 –10 : This paper reviews the aerodynamics of membrane and corresponding rigid wings under the MAV flight conditions. The membrane wing is observed to yield desirable characteristics in delaying stall as well as adapting to the unsteady flight environment, whic his intrinsic to the designated flight speed. Flow structures associated wit hthe low Reynolds number and low aspect ratio wing, suc has pressure distribution, separation bubble and tip vortex are reviewed. Structural dynamics in response to the surrounding flow field is presented to highlight the multiple time-scale phenomena. Based on the computational capabilities for treating moving boundary problems, wing shape optimi