Experimental Study on Flapping Wing Geometry

Insects in nature have a distinct combination of geometric wing parameters to generate enough force to sustain active flight. To understand the consequence of varying wing parameters on flapping-wing performance, we first investigated the effect of wing geometric parameters, such as wing area, camber angle, non-dimensionalized second area moment, and aspect ratio, on mean thrust and power efficiency, using the one-factor-at-a-time approach. Then, to obtain an optimal wing configuration, a surrogate-based experimental design optimization process was conducted reflecting the effect of noise in the experiments. The results demonstrate that the optimized wing provides significantly improved efficiency while maintaining sufficient capability to sustain a required flapping flight.