A study of aerodynamics of a flapping-wing model

A kinematic model of the flapping wing based on bees was investigated in this paper to analyze the aerodynamic characteristics. Taking advantage of the computational fluid dynamics technique, the effects of the maximum stoke angle, frequency and attack angle on the aerodynamics were studied. The reasons why the flapping wing can maintain high lift were demonstrated by analyzing the variations of lift and drag during a flapping cycle. Our analytic results reveal that the turning movement is the main factor causing the changes in lift. The average lift is improved as the maximum stoke angle and frequency increase, and the average lift reaches its maximum when the attack angle is 50°. Meanwhile, the working conditions have little impact on the average drag.