Design and Computational Study of Main Body of Bird Like Flapping Wing MAV

Recent progress in flapping-wing micro air vehicles has led to the design of the bird-like main body of a flapping-wing micro air vehicle. Inspired by the Calliope hummingbird, the main body of the flapping-wing micro aerial vehicle is designed, and modifications were made to house all the commercially available components inside the main body such as a battery, motor and camera. All the components were placed inside and the center of gravity position of the main body of bio-inspired MAV was determined. Steady and unsteady computational analysis of the main body was carried out at body angles of 8, 14, 20, 28, 38, 50, 70 and 90 degrees. The effect of change in forward velocity on aerodynamics was also studied at the body angle of 28 degrees, where the lift to drag ratio is maximum. Flow physics analysis made at different body angles shows that flow starts to separate after 50 degrees and stall accurs. Bell and semi S-shaped curves are formed when the coefficient of lift and Drag are plotted against the body angle, respectively.