Efficiency of an auto-propelled flapping airfoil

Abstract The present study deals with an investigation of the flow aerodynamic characteristics and the propulsive velocity of a system equipped with a nature inspired propulsion system. In particular, the study is aimed at studying the effect of the flapping frequency on the flow behavior. We consider a NACA0014 airfoil undergoing a vertical sinusoidal flapping motion. In contrast to nearly all previous studies in the literature, the present work does not impose any velocity on the inlet flow. During each iteration the outer flow velocity is computed after having determined the forces exerted on the airfoil. Forward motion may only be produced by flapping motion of the airfoil. This is more consistent with the physical phenomenon. The non-stationary viscous flow around the flapping airfoil is simulated using Ansys-Fluent 12.0.7. The airfoil movement is achieved using the deformable mesh technique and an in-house developed User Define Function (UDF). Our results show the influence of flapping frequency and amplitude on both the airfoil velocity and the propulsive efficiency. The resulting motion is contrasts to the applied forces. In the present study, the frequency ranges from 0.1 to 20 Hz while the airfoil amplitude values considered are: 10%, 17.5%, 25% and 40%.