Publication: Eagle wing design
Date
2009-04-01
Authors
Lee, Chunhow
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Abstract
A wing flapping mechanism with span variation analogous to eagle wing was developed in this project. The flapping motion which imposes the required kinematics was designed according to the bird flapping mechanism with the corresponding motor driven/gearbox mechanism and visualized using CAD software. The rotary motion of motor is converted to linear motion by driving linkage to provide a continuous bird-like wing flapping motion. The 1 DOF flapping wing structure, which flap about the spar joint was further developed and fabricated into prototype with appropriate materials. Based on the model, the lift characteristics of flapping flight were investigated by testing at various angles of attack, wind tunnel speeds and flapping frequencies with the aids of wing tunnel. The model was tested at a range of parameters up to 15 angle of attack, 10.8m/s wind speed and 3.185Hz frequency. Lift characteristic of the flapping wing responding proportional to angle of attack, wind speed and flapping frequency. However, due to the motor power constraint, higher frequencies testing were not performed and the maximum available lift of this particular model was undetermined. Therefore, a bigger motor is needed in order to determine the optimum lift performance of this model.