Analytical model and stability analysis of the leading edge spar of a passively morphing ornithopter wing

Bioinspir Biomim. 2015 Oct 26;10(6):065003. doi: 10.1088/1748-3190/10/6/065003.

Abstract

This paper presents the stability analysis of the leading edge spar of a flapping wing unmanned air vehicle with a compliant spine inserted in it. The compliant spine is a mechanism that was designed to be flexible during the upstroke and stiff during the downstroke. Inserting a variable stiffness mechanism into the leading edge spar affects its structural stability. The model for the spar-spine system was formulated in terms of the well-known Mathieu's equation, in which the compliant spine was modeled as a torsional spring with a sinusoidal stiffness function. Experimental data was used to validate the model and results show agreement within 11%. The structural stability of the leading edge spar-spine system was determined analytically and graphically using a phase plane plot and Strutt diagrams. Lastly, a torsional viscous damper was added to the leading edge spar-spine model to investigate the effect of damping on stability. Results show that for the un-damped case, the leading edge spar-spine response was stable and bounded; however, there were areas of instability that appear for a range of spine upstroke and downstroke stiffnesses. Results also show that there exist a damping ratio between 0.2 and 0.5, for which the leading edge spar-spine system was stable for all values of spine upstroke and downstroke stiffnesses.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Aircraft / instrumentation*
  • Animals
  • Birds / physiology*
  • Computer-Aided Design
  • Elastic Modulus / physiology
  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Flight, Animal / physiology*
  • Models, Biological*
  • Morphogenesis / physiology
  • Rheology / methods
  • Robotics / instrumentation*
  • Wings, Animal / physiology*