Flapping-Wing Aerial Vehicle generally has light-weight and small size characteristics, and its small scale is particularly suited for surveillance mission, but quite fragile to severe weather impact. Here we consider the environmental effects to measure its performance degradation level. In order to realize the weather impact’s effect, a flight vehicle energy equation to measure flight performance in terms of quantitative parameter is first derived. The 2-D “figure-eight” flapping airfoil motions are first validated, and then the 3-D butterfly performance parameter under different atmospheric conditions are numerically simulated and compared. Both the butterfly body and wing flapping motions are activated and implemented in current research. From the difference of performance parameter under different weather condition, it can show how much flapping frequency it has to increase in order to maintain the same clear weather flight performance. It is believed that the quantitative information gained in this work will be useful in the future optimal design of flapping wing aerial vehicles.
Relation:
2020 AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition