Effect of Frontal Gusts on Forward Flapping Flight

Abstract

The response of a rigid flapping wing in forward flight, at Re = 10,000, subjected to frontal gusts has been investigated. The phasing and duration of the gusts and their impact on the various unsteady mechanisms are analyzed within a single flapping cycle. The gust is characterized by a step function with integral length scale much larger than that of the physical dimension of the micro air vehicle and with time scale much smaller than the flapping time period. The instantaneous lift and thrust profiles were observed to be influenced by a combination of the effective angle of attack, wing rotation, and the leading-edge vortex structures existing in the flow at any given time, with the leading-edge vortices themselves being influenced by the duration and magnitude of the change in effective angle of attack. Frontal gusts applied during the downstroke accelerated the development of the flow, resulting in the formation and detachment of multiple leading-edge vortices on the wing surface that increased the lift and thrust, illustrating the importance of the leading-edge vortex dynamics to force production. The effect of the gust is observed to be diminished when it occurs during rapid supination of the wing. The lift and thrust profiles are found to react in a similar fashion for gusts applied during the downstroke, whereas they experienced opposite effects during the upstroke. During the upstroke, force characteristics are shown to primarily react to effective angle-of-attack changes more than to changes in flow structures.