Article

International Journal of Micro Air

Vehicles
2017, Vol. 9(3) 187197
Experimental investigation of wing ! The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1756829317695565
hovering flapping wing micro air vehicle journals.sagepub.com/home/mav

with double wing clap-and-fling effects

Quoc V Nguyen, Woei L Chan and Marco Debiasi

Abstract
Experimental investigation of wing flexibility on vertical thrust generation and power consumption in hovering condition
for a hovering Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle, namely FlowerFly, weighing 14.5 g with a 3 g onboard battery and having
four wings with double wing clap-and-fling effects, was conducted for several wing configurations with the same shape,
area, and weight. A data acquisition system was set up to simultaneously record aerodynamic forces, electrical power
consumption, and wing motions at various flapping frequencies. The forces and power consumption were measured with
a loadcell and a custom-made shunt circuit, respectively, and the wing motion was captured by high-speed cameras. The
results show a phase delay of the wing tip displacement observed for wings with high flexible leading edge at high
frequency, resulting in less vertical thrust produced when compared with the wings with less leading edge flexibility at the
same flapping frequency. Positive wing camber was observed during wing flapping motion by arranging the wing sup-
porting ribs. Comparison of thrust-to-power ratios between the wing configurations was undertaken to figure out a wing
configuration for high vertical thrust production but less power consumption.

Keywords
Doule wing clap-and-fling, flexible wing, micro air vehicles, flapping wing, thrust-to-power ratio, flapping wing efficiency,
insect inspiration

Date received: 4 December 2016; accepted: 27 January 2017

Introduction forward speed or nearly hovering, resulting in produ-

Vertical Takeo and Landing (VTOL), agile maneuver-
ing, and hovering ight are extremely desirable charac-
teristics of insect ight in development of Flapping-
Wing Micro Air Vehicles (FW-MAVs), which enable
an insect-inspired FW-MAV to retake o and y in
conned spaces for indoor surveillance. Moreover,
FW-MAVs have been proven to be more ecient at
low Reynolds number regime (typically from 103 to
105, see Nakata et al.1) under unsteady aerodynamics
when their size becomes smaller than 15 cm. This is
because FW-MAVs benet from several unsteady aero-
dynamic mechanisms: wing leading vortex and delayed
stall,2 wing clap-and-ing,3 and wing rotation and wake
capture.4,5
Operation-wise, insect-inspired FW-MAVs ap their
wings at relatively low frequencies and y at low
cing less noise, and less dangerous than their counter
parts of xed wings ying at high forward speed and
rotary wings operating at high motor or propeller
speed. However, the payload ability of insect-inspired
FW-MAVs is very limited (in sub-10 g) due to their
nature of small size and light weight.1,610 Therefore,
researchers have been looking into changing the wing
designs in terms of wing membrane, wing aspect ratio,
wing stiness in spanwise and chordwise for
Temasek Laboratories, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Corresponding author:
Quoc V Nguyen, Temasek Laboratories, National University of Singapore,
5A Engineering Drive 1, Unit 09-02 Singapore 117411, Singapore.
Emails: tslnqv@nus.edu.sg; nguyenqv@gmail.com

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(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
188 International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles 9(3)

aerodynamic force improvement.6,7,1113 Their research

provides a general guideline for designing wings for
FW-MAVs; the wings should be exible, but sti
enough to maintain the wing shape and overcome the
air load as well as wing inertia under dynamic condi-
tions. However, the wing mass was not kept the same
for all cases of wing congurations in their study, and
electrical power consumption was not mentioned in
some of their studies.
Nakata et al.1 experimentally investigated and com-
putationally studied the exible apping wing aero-
dynamics on a palm size FW-MAV with X-wing
conguration. They indicated that the eectiveness of
the wing clap-and-ing and the suciency of the wing
exibility signicantly increase the lift, but the power
consumed by the wings was not measured. Zhao et al.11
investigated the eects of wing exural stiness on
aerodynamic forces for various wing congurations in
hovering condition. The experiment was conducted in
mineral oil tank at low Reynolds number (Re  2000)
by using a dynamically scaled mechanical model of Figure 1. The FlowerFly with an onboard camera for first-
apping ight. With being implemented suciency of person-view control and a control system for yaw, pitch, and roll
wing supporting veins for creating wing camber modu- control performed by three servos.
lation, in particularly at wing trailing edge, the exible
wings could generate aerodynamic forces as high as the
rigid wing. However, wing mass was not kept the same Experimental investigation was conducted for ve dif-
for all wing congurations and power consumption was ferent wing congurations to acquire vertical thrusts,
not mentioned. Deng et al.6,7 experimentally and com- power consumptions, and apping wing motions or
putationally studied on eciency of apping wings in wing kinematics. All acquired data was synchronized
terms of thrust-to-power ratio for the bio-inspired ex- with a trigger. Wing eciency was characterized by
ible apping wings for Dely Micro in both hovering thrust-to-power ratio, which is dened as the ratio
and forward-ight conditions. The results revealed that of the vertical thrust to the electrical input power or
the wing exibility signicantly aects the apping per- power consumption. In addition, the design of gear-
formance; more rigid wings can produce higher forces box using one motor to simultaneously drive four
but consume more power, and the wing mass was not wings and create double wing clap-and-ing is also
guaranteed for all tested wings. Phan et al. used a described in this work.
modied blade element theory with quasi-steady aero-
dynamics14 to optimize the wing twist angle for various
apping frequencies with a given wing kinematics pat- Materials and methods
tern and concluded that the twisted wing is optimal for
high lift production.13
Flapping mechanism and gearbox
As a continuing eort to increase the payload abil- Flapping mechanism is one of the challenging parts in
ity for our FlowerFly,8 see Figure 1, for more system the design of gearbox. It converts the rotary motion of
integration on the next version toward the autono- motor or crank into apping motion of wings. In this
mous ight, such as implementation of autopilot and design, we used a combination of crank-slider mechan-
stereo vision system, we have improved the aero- ism and linkage mechanism, see Figure 2. The rotary
dynamic force generation of the FlowerFly by experi- motion of the crank is transformed into the linear
mentally investigating various wing congurations motion of the slider engaging in a slot through the con-
with dierent exibility in both spanwise and chord- necting link, and then the linear motion of the slider is
wise. The aim is to nd a set of wings that can gener- transformed into the reciprocating or apping motion
ate high vertical thrust, but consumes low power, i.e. of a coupler to which the wings are attached.
high ecient wings. In order to avoid eects of wing Figure 3 shows a comparison between a sinusoidal
shape, wing aspect ratio (AR), and wing inertia dier- function and wing apping angle produced by the
ence between the wing congurations, the wing shape, designed apping mechanism in one apping cycle.
area, and wing mass are kept the same for all cases. The apping angle is close to the sinusoidal function,
Nguyen et al. 189

which helps to avoid high angular acceleration or wing ing eects, see Figure 4, can be created at the end of
inertia during apping. each half apping stroke: downstroke and upstroke.
Keeping in mind the principles of insect ight, we The large apping angle and wing clap-and-ing eects
invented a gearbox using only one motor8 to synchron- are expected to produce high thrust.
ously drive four wings and create double wing clap- For fabrication of the gearbox, we selected some
and-ing eects during one apping cycle. The gearbox potential materials such as acrylic, glass ber
combines two modules driven by a brushless motor.
Each module consists of a gear reduction system with
a gear ratio of 1:20, a crank-slider mechanism, and a
linkage consisting of two couplers and two output
links. Wing holders are installed on the couplers for
wing attachment, see Figure 2. The apping angle of
each coupler or wing is designed to be 90 ; correspond-
ingly, the four wings sweep a whole cylinder of 360 for
a apping cycle. Therefore, the double wing clap-and-

Wing
leading
edges
Motor
pinion
Crank
Crank

Sliders

Couplers
Figure 4. Flapping strokes of the designed gearbox, and double
Figure 2. Design of the gearbox using two crank-slider mech- wing clap-and-fling for thrust enhancement are created at the end
anisms and two linkages for creating double wing clap-and-fling. of downstroke and upstroke.

Flapping angle Sinusoidal flapping angle

Angular velocity Sinusoidal angular velocity
Angular acceleration Sinusoidal angular acceleration

0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00

100 6
Beginning of downstroke End of upstroke
30
4
80
Angular Acceleration (rad/s2)

0
Angular Velocity (rad/s)
Flapping Angle (deg)

2
60 -30

0
-60
do

40
ok e
wn
s

str
tro

-2
up
ke

-90
20
-4 -120
End of downstroke
0 Beginning of upstroke
-6 -150
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
Non-dimensinal Time (t/T)

Figure 3. Flapping angles, angular velocities, and angular accelerations of the flapping mechanism (red line for flapping angle, black
line for angular velocity, and blue line for angular acceleration. The sinusoidal functions are only for reference.)
190 International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles 9(3)

Table 1. Parameters of wings, Group 1: Wing no. 1 and Wing

no. 2 with the 0.6 mm carbon rod leading edge, Group 2: Wing
no. 3, Wing no. 4, and Wing no. 5 with the 0.7 mm carbon tube
leading edge.

Leading Mass
edge No. of Span Area (g)
No. (mm) veins (mm) (mm2) (difference)

1 0.6 3 110 7184 0.28a

2 0.6 3 110 7184 0.29
(3.6%)
3 0.7 3 110 7184 0.29
(3.6%)
4 0.7 3 110 7184 0.29
(3.6%)
5 0.7 4 110 7184 0.28a
a
Figure 5. Completely fabricated gearbox weighing 2.5/5 g Mass reference.
without/with motor installed.

composite, and highly glossy carbon ber composite,
and found that the last one is appropriate in terms of
lightweight and high strength. The only drawback of
the highly glossy carbon ber composite compared
with the two others is that it requires special end mills
and cutting this is time consuming. The designed parts
of the gearbox including links, frames, and gears with
module 0.3 mm in SolidWork were converted into G-
codes by a free integrated HSMWorks software. The
G-codes were read by a precision milling CNC machine
(M300S CE, Woosung E&I Co. Ltd, Korea, with a
cutting resolution 0.001 mm) to mill the links and
frames, and the gears from 1 mm-thick highly glossy
carbon ber sheet, and Acetal (POM) sheet,
respectively.
Assembling the gear box is time consuming, and
requires meticulousness; slight misalignment of links
and gears can lead to undesired vibration, high friction,
or produce obstruction to stop motions of the moving
parts, resulting in gear teeth damage and link breakage.
One millimeter stainless steel tube and pins are used for
cylinder joints of the linkages, and Teon washers are
placed between the moving parts for friction reduction.
Figure 5 shows a completely fabricated gearbox weigh-
ing 2.5 g without motor installed. A brushless motor
(AP02, 2.3 g, kV 7000, hobbyking.com) controlled by
an electronic speed controller (Mi-3A ESC module,
hobbyking.com) is used to drive the gearbox.
Wings
We used lightweight materials such as thin carbon rod
(0.6 mm rod/0.7 mm tube for leading edge and 0.3 mm /
0.5 mm rods for wing ribs or supporting veins) and thin
Mylar lm (5 mm) for wing fabrication. The detail
fabrication process can be found in Nguyen et al.9 In
order to investigate the eect of wing exibility on ver-
tical thrust and power consumption while avoiding
wing inertia dierence between the wings, various
wings with the same shape, area, wing membrane thick-
ness (5 mm Mylar lm), and weight, but dierent wing
leading edge diameters (0.6 mm carbon rod, and 0.7
mm carbon tube) and supporting veins (0.5 mm and
0.3 mm carbon rods) were fabricated and used, see
Table 1. The wing aspect ratio (AR) of an individual
wing is 1.68, the wing length (root to tip) is 110 mm,
with maximum and mean chord lengths of 66.7 mm and
65.3 mm, respectively, and the surface area of each
wing is 7184 mm2. The weight dierence between
these wings is only 3.6%, and thus the eect of wing
inertia dierence between the wings can be assumed the
same for all wings and neglected in comparison between
these wings even though the wing mass distribution
along the wing span is slightly dierent. Figure 6
shows the wing designs for ve cases. The wings can
be divided into two wing groups; Group 1 includes
Wing no. 1 and Wing no. 2 with the same leading
edge stiness (0.6 mm carbon rod) and slight dierence
in chordwise stiness, see Figure 6, and Group 2
includes Wing no. 3, Wing no. 4, and Wing no. 5
with the same leading edge stiness (0.7 mm carbon
tube) and dierent chordwise stiness.
Experimental apparatus
The experimental apparatus consists of the FW-MAV,
FlowerFly without tail, equipped with a Neodymium
magnet placed in the gearbox at the reduction gear with
crank for frequency readings and a radio receiver
(DTRx31d, 2.4 GHz, Deltang, UK), and controlled
Nguyen et al.
Figure 6. Fabricated wings made of Mylar film and carbon rods.
by a transmitter (DX7, 2.4 GHz DSM2, Spektrum,
USA), a test jig for mounting the FW-MAV, a 3-axis
force/torque loadcell (Nano 17 Titanium, ATI
Industrial Automation, USA) for force measurement,
a custom-made shunt circuit for current and voltage
measurement and a tachometer built in house with
Hall Eect sensor for frequency readings, a high
speed camera (Phantom Miro M320S, LaVision,
Germany) for apping wing motion capture, a power
supply (Tenma 72-8350, China), a data acquisition card
(DAQ card BNC-2110, National Instrument, USA) for
acquiring data, a PC for data reading and recording,
and an in-house built trigger for data synchronization.
The experimental setup is shown in Figure 7.
Measurement of force, power, and wing motion
All the apping tests were conducted in still air in
hovering condition from 9 Hz onward the maximum
frequency that the FW-MAV could operate at full
throttle level. Lower apping frequencies than 9 Hz
were refrained from experiment due to low force
expected. Data acquisition for each wing conguration
was repeated ve times for each apping frequency.
Because the two pairs of wings ap symmetrically in
opposite phase, see Figure 4, the forces in horizontal
plane or horizontal forces acting on each wing are
191
canceled by each other. Thus, only the force in vertical
direction or vertical thrust could be acquired by the
loadcell.
The FW-MAV was directly mounted to the loadcell,
and then rmly installed into the test jig in vertical con-
guration; this is similar to the free hovering ight con-
dition of the FlowerFly. The power supply maintained
the applied voltage of 3.7 V (equivalent to a single cell
LiPo battery) to the motor. The transmitter generated
the pulse width modulation (PWM) command and
transmitted it to the receiver for controlling the motor
speed or apping frequency of the FW-MAV through
the electronic speed controller (ESC). The apping fre-
quency acquired by the Hall Eect sensor and tachom-
eter was sent to the PC for readings. Data of force,
electrical power in terms of voltage and current, and
high speed images of wing motion were acquired at the
same time with the trigger. When the trigger was turned
on, the Hall Eect sensor picked up the magnetic signal
from the Neodymium magnet and transmitted an elec-
trical pulse to simultaneously activate the high speed
camera, the loadcell, and the shunt circuit for data rec-
ording. Thus, the images recorded from the camera
were synchronized with the data of force and power
consumption. The sampling rate of force, power, and
wing motion was set at the same frequency of 5 kHz to
avoid time shift of the recorded data.
192
Figure 7. Experimental apparatus and set-up for measurement and synchronization of forces, power, and wing motion.
Data process
Contaminated noise due the vibration of the apping-
wing system and structural vibration of the test jig was
ltered out by a low pass lter with a cut-o frequency
of three times greater than the apping frequency as
recommended by Caetano et al.15 Twenty apping
cycles were taken from each measurement (out of
ve), and then averaged to represent the cycle-averaged
value of each measurement. Afterward, we calculated
the statistical mean value of ve cycle-averaged values
to represent the cycle-averaged force and power con-
sumption of the FW-MAV. The high speed images of
wing motion were used to examine the wing deform-
ation in terms of spanwise and chordwise deformation
and interpret the vertical force and power consumption
histories.
Result and discussions
Time-dependent vertical thrust
The typical instantaneous vertical thrust, power con-
sumption, and apping angle synchronized with each
other are plotted in Figure 8 with respect to (w.r.t) non-
dimensional time for one apping cycle. The instantan-
eous vertical thrust displays two peaks with dierent
magnitude and two troughs with almost the same
International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles 9(3)
magnitude of nearly zero. From the examination of
the high speed camera images, the rst peak and
second peak are found to occur at the end of wing
ing during downstroke and upstroke, respectively,
while the eects of wing clap are not clearly seen.
This phenomenon is due to the passive wing rotation
mechanism used in the FW-MAV,8 and the wings
cannot actively and quickly rotate to push the air
down when the two wings leading edges approach
each other. The two troughs are almost zero and
found to occur at the beginning of downstroke and
upstroke, respectively, where the wings are almost
aligned in vertical direction, i.e. angle of attack of the
apping wing is almost 90 . Similarly, the power con-
sumption history also displays two peaks and two
troughs in one apping cycle with a slight phase shift
compared to the vertical thrust history at the rst peak
and second peak, respectively. It also can be seen that the
FW-MAV produces asymmetrical vertical thrust peaks
during downstroke and upstroke. The thrust peak at the
end of wing ing during upstroke is higher than that at
the end of wing ing during downstroke. This phenom-
enon is due to the wing root gap dierence in the gearbox
design and slightly tolerance of the gearbox assembly,
resulting in wing clap and ing more fully at the end of
upstroke than downstroke.
Figures 9 to 13 show the vertical thrust history syn-
chronized with power consumption for one apping
Nguyen et al. 193

Figure 8. Typical vertical thrust and power consumption histories of the FW-MAV for one flapping cycle; flapping angle and angular
velocity are for reference.

60 7 60 7
Vertical thrust-9Hz Power-9Hz Vertical thrust-9Hz Power-9Hz
Verital thrust-10Hz Power-10Hz Vertical thrust-10Hz Power-10Hz
Vertical thrust-11Hz Power-11Hz Vertical thrust-11Hz Power-11Hz
Vertical thrust-12Hz Power-12Hz
50 Vertical thrust-12Hz
Vertical thrust-13Hz
Power-12Hz
Power-13Hz
6 50 Vertical thrust-13Hz Power-13Hz
6
Vertical thrust-14Hz Power-14Hz Vertical thrust-14Hz Power-14Hz
Vertical thrust-15Hz Power-15Hz Vertical thrust-15Hz Power-15Hz
Vertical thrust-16Hz Power-16Hz Vertical thrust-15.9Hz Power-15.9Hz
5 40 5
40
Vertical thrust (g)
Vertical thrust (g)

Power (W)
Power (W)

4 4
30 30

3 3
20 20

2 2
10 10

1 1
0 0
0 0
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
Non-dimensional time (t/T) Non-dimensional time (t/T)

Figure 9. Time-dependent vertical thrust of Wing no. 1 for Figure 10. Time-dependent vertical thrust of Wing no. 2 for
various frequencies from 9 Hz to 16 Hz. various frequencies from 9 Hz to 15.9 Hz.

cycle. The positive values dominate the force proles in aected, and remain at nearly zero. Power consumption
both half apping strokes: downstroke and upstroke, is shifted up in a similar pattern as the apping fre-
resulting in positive cycle-averaged vertical thrust. The quency increases.
results indicate that the apping frequency signicantly Figure 14 shows comparisons of vertical thrusts and
inuences the vertical force and power consumption. power consumption of ve wing congurations at a
Higher apping frequency yields a considerable apping frequency of 12 Hz for one apping cycle. It
increase in vertical thrust history at the region around can be seen that the wings with more rigid leading edge
the two peaks while the two troughs are almost not (Group 2, 0.7 mm carbon tube leading edge)
194 International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles 9(3)

60 7 60 7
Vertical thrust-9Hz Power-9Hz Vertical thrust-Wing#1 Power-Wing#1 12 Hz
Vertical thrust-10Hz Power-10Hz Vertical thrust-Wing#2 Power-Wing#2
Vertical thrust-11Hz Power-11Hz Vertical thrust-Wing#3 Power-Wing#3
50 Vertical thrust-12Hz Power-12Hz
6 50 Vertical thrust-Wing#4 Power-Wing#4 6
Vertical thrust-13Hz Power-13Hz Vertical thrust-Wing#5 Power-Wing#5
Vertical thrust-14Hz Power-14Hz
40 5 40 5
Vertical thrust (g)

Vertical thrust (g)

Power (W)

Power (W)
4 4
30 30

3 3
20 20

2 2
10 10
1 1
0 0
0 0
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
Non-dimensional time (t/T) Non-dimensional time (t/T)

Figure 11. Time-dependent vertical thrust of Wing no. 3 for Figure 14. Comparison of vertical thrusts and power con-
various frequencies from 9 Hz to 14 Hz. sumption for five wing configurations at a selected flapping fre-
quency of 12 Hz for one flapping cycle.

signicantly increase the two vertical thrust peaks when

60 7
Vertical thrust-9Hz Power-9Hz compared with the wings with less rigid leading edge
Vertical thrust-10Hz Power-10Hz

50
Vertical thrust-11Hz
Vertical thrust-12Hz
Vertical thrust-13Hz
40
Vertical thrust (g)
Power-11Hz
Power-12Hz 6
(Group 1, 0.6 mm carbon rod leading edge); this result
Power-13Hz is similar to the work done by Ho et al.16 The two
5 troughs in the vertical thrust are not aected by the
wing spanwise exibility in both Groups 1 and 2, and

Power (W)

4
30 remain the same value at nearly zero. In general, the
3 wings with the same wing leading edge stiness (0.7 mm
20
carbon tube, 0.6 mm carbon rod) produce similar ver-
2
10 tical thrust history; only slightly dierence was
1 observed, see Figure 14. It is suggested that the wing
0 leading edge stiness plays a major role in vertical
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75
0
1.00
thrust production than the wing chordwise exibility.
Non-dimensional time (t/T)

Figure 12. Time-dependent vertical thrust of Wing no. 4 for
various frequencies from 9 Hz to 13 Hz.
60
Vertical thrust-9Hz
Vertical thrust-10Hz
Maximum flapping frequency and vertical thrust
Given the same motor and gearbox, the maximum ap-
ping frequency of the FW-MAV is depended on not
only wing mass or inertia but also wing frontal area
which is determined by the wing area projected on the
plane perpendicular to the wing motion direction.
7
Power-9Hz Larger frontal wing area is subjected to more drag,
Power-10Hz

50
Vertical thrust-11Hz
Vertical thrust-12Hz
Power-11Hz
Power-12Hz 6
and vice versa. When the wing congurations (wing
Vertical thrust-13Hz
Vertical thrust-14Hz
Power-13Hz
Power-14Hz leading edge and wing supporting veins) are changed,
40 5 the wing deformation as well as wing rotation angle is
passively changed during apping motion. The wing
Vertical thrust (g)

Power (W)

4
30 deformation in spanwise and chordwise as well as
3 wing rotation changes the frontal area of the apping
20
wing, resulting in change of drag acting on the wing.
2
10 Therefore, dierent wing conguration has dierent
1 apping frequency at a given throttle level.
0 Figure 15 shows the maximum apping frequency
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75
0
1.00
and vertical thrust of ve wing congurations at max-
Non-dimensional time (t/T)
imum throttle level. The results indicate that the wings
in each group (Groups 1 and 2) show similar maximum
Figure 13. Time-dependent vertical thrust of Wing no. 5 for frequency and vertical thrust. Moreover, it was
various frequencies from 9 Hz to 14 Hz. observed from the high speed images of wing motion
Nguyen et al. 195

30 30
Frequency (Hz)
Vertical thrust (g)

25
25

Vertical thrust (g)

20

20
15

10
15

5
Wing#1 Wing#2 Wing#3 Wing#4 Wing#5
10
0 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Wing#1 Wing#2 Wing#3 Wing#4 Wing#5 Frequency (Hz)
Group#1 Group#2
Figure 16. Cycle-averaged vertical thrust w.r.t flapping fre-
Figure 15. Maximum flapping frequency and vertical thrust of quency for five cases of wing configurations.
various wing configurations at full throttle level from the radio
transmitter.
4.0

that the wings in Group 1 (Wing no. 1 and Wing no. 2) 3.5
had larger wing deformation in spanwise direction than
Power consumption (W)

the wings in Group 2 (Wing no. 3, Wing no. 4, and 3.0

Wing no. 5). Phase delay of wing tip displacement,
i.e. the wing tip and wing root move in opposite direc- 2.5

tion, was observed only in the wings in Group 1, based

on the results shown in Figure 15, it can be concluded 2.0

that maximum apping frequency and vertical thrust

mostly depend on wing leading edge stiness in span- 1.5

wise direction, slightly change in chordwise stiness Wing#1 Wing#2 Wing#3 Wing#4 Wing#5
plays marginal role in contribution to the maximum 1.0
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
frequency and vertical thrust. Frequency (Hz)

Figure 17. Cycle-averaged electrical power consumption w.r.t

Cycle-averaged vertical thrust and power
consumption
The results shown in Figure 16 indicate almost a nearly
linear relationship between cycle-averaged vertical
thrust and apping frequency for all wing congur-
ations. Theoretically, the vertical thrust or lift is pro-
portional to the velocity or frequency square.
Therefore, the nearly linear relationship obtained
from the experiment can be explained by the induced
velocity which reduces the eective angle of attack on
the apping wing. The induced velocity tends to
increase as the apping frequency increases, thus,
resulting in reducing eective angle of attack on the
apping wing or resulting in reducing vertical thrust
on the wing. Again, it can be seen that the wings with
the same leading edge stiness produce similar cycle-
averaged vertical thrust at the same apping frequency.
And the wings with more rigid leading edge generate
more vertical thrust than the wings with less rigid lead-
ing edge.
flapping frequency for five cases of wing configurations.
The power consumption also increases almost lin-
early with the apping frequency. The wings with the
same leading edge stiness show the similar trend in
power consumption, see Figure 17.
Figure 18 indicates the thrust-to-power ratio for
each wing conguration. This curve is relatively at
with respect to frequency; there is about one unit dif-
ference from 9 Hz to the maximum apping frequency
of each wing. Wing no. 3 shows similar cycle-averaged
vertical thrust to the Wing no. 4 and Wing no. 5 while
consuming less power, resulting in the highest thrust-to-
power ratio among the ve wings. This is due to the
more uniform wing rotation from wing root to wing tip,
and positive wing camber created during apping com-
pared with the other wings, which was observed by the
high speed images of wing motion. Wing no. 1 produces
comparable vertical thrust, but consumes more power
at frequencies lower than 14 Hz, resulting in ineciency
196
10
9 Higher apping frequency produces larger vertical
Thrust-to-power ratio (g/W)
8
7 Declaration of conflicting interests
6
Wing#1 Wing#2
5
9 10 11 12
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 18. Cycle-averagde thrust-to-power ratio w.r.t flapping
frequency for five cases of wing configurations.
of thrust-to-power ratio. Overall, it is clear that span-
wise wing exibility inuences both the vertical thrust
history and power consumption, while the chordwise
wing exibility plays a marginal eect. The wings
with the same leading edge stiness produce similar
patterns of both vertical thrust and power consumption
histories, and also similar trend in cycle-averaged ver-
tical thrust and power consumption.
Conclusion
Experiments have been conducted to investigate the
wing exibility on vertical thrust production and
power consumption of a FW-MAV with double wing
clap-and-ing eects, namely FlowerFly, which has two
pairs of wings and a weight of 14.5 g. In summary, the
following conclusions can be derived from this study:
(i) Two vertical thrust peaks with dierent magnitude
and two vertical thrust troughs with almost zero
magnitude were observed within one apping
cycle. Due to the passive wing rotation mechanism
used in the FW-MAV, the vertical thrust peaks at
about 25% and 75% apping cycle, respectively,
are created by the wing ing rather than the wing
clap. The lower and higher peaks occur at the end
of wing ing during downstroke and upstroke,
respectively.
(ii) Wings with the same leading edge stiness produce
similar vertical thrust history and cycle-averaged
vertical thrust. At the same apping frequency,
wings with stier leading edge produce higher
thrust peaks, resulting in larger cycle-averaged
thrust compared with the wings with less leading
stiness. Wing chordwise stiness plays a marginal
role in both vertical thrust history and cycle-aver-
aged thrust.
International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles 9(3)
(iii) At a apping frequency of 9 Hz, the FlowerFly is
about to produce enough vertical thrust for lift-o.
thrust peaks while thrust troughs remain
unchanged at almost zero value.
The author(s) declared no potential conicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Wing#3 Wing#4 Wing#5
13 14 15 16 17 Funding
The author(s) received no nancial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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