MULTIBODY ANALYSIS OF A MICRO-AERIAL VEHICLE FLAPPING WING

Abstract. This paper discusses the use of multibody dynamics, augment ed by the direct implementation of nonlinear finite element beams and significa tly shells, to perform the coupled structural and fluid-dynamics analysis of flapping wing Micro -Aerial Vehicles. The implementation of the shell formulation in a free general-purpose mu ltibody solver is described and validated. The solver, coupled to a free-wake aerodynamic mo del based on vortex-lattice, is applied to the analysis of a very flexible MAV flapping wing. Enc ouraging results have been obtained, which illustrate how the structural model should b e a le to capture the physics of the problem when coupled with more sophisticated aerodynamic mod els.

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