Aerodynamic Analysis and Simulation of Flapping Wing Aerial Vehicles on Hovering

In order to design and verify control algorithms for flapping wing aerial vehicles(FWAVs),calculation models of the translational force,rotational force and virtual mass force were established with the basis on the modified quasi-steady aerodynamic theory and high lift mechanisms of insect flight.The simulation results show that the rotational force and virtual mass force can be ignored in the hovering FWAVs with simple harmonic motions in a cycle.The effects of the wing deformation on aerodynamic forces were investigated by regarding the maximum rotational angle of wingtip as a reference variable.The simulation results also show that the average lift coefficient increases and drag coefficient decreases with the increase of the maximum rotational angle of wingtip in the range of 0-90°.

Analysis and Research on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Quad Tilt Rotor Aircraft

For the quad tilt rotor aircraft, a computational fluid dynamics method based on multiple reference frames (MRF) was used to analyze the influence of aerodynamic layout parameters on the aerodynamic characteristics of the quad tilt rotor aircraft. Firstly, a numerical simulation method for the interference flow field of the quad tilt rotor aircraft is established. Based on this method, the aerodynamic characteristics of isolated rotors, rotor combinations at different lateral positions on the wing, and rotor rotation directions under different inflow velocities were calculated and analyzed, in order to grasp their aerodynamic interference laws and provide reference for the design and control theory research of such aircraft.

The influence of the wake of a flapping wing on the production of aerodynamic forces

The effect of the wake of previous strokes on the aerodynamic forces of a flapping model insect wing is studied using the method of computational fluid dynamics. The wake effect is isolated by comparing the forces and flows of the starting stroke （when the wake has not developed） with those of a later stroke （when the wake has developed）. The following has been shown. （1） The wake effect may increase or decrease the lift and drag at the beginning of a half-stroke （downstroke or upstroke）, depending on the wing kinematics at stroke reversal. The reason for this is that at the beginning of the half-stroke, the wing “impinges” on the spanwise vorticity generated by the wing during stroke reversal and the distribution of the vorticity is sensitive to the wing kinematics at stroke reversal. （2） The wake effect decreases the lift and increases the drag in the rest part of the half-stroke. This is because the wing moves in a downwash field induced by previous half-stroke＇s starting vortex, tip vortices and attached leading edge vortex （these vortices form a downwash producing vortex ring）. （3） The wake effect decreases the mean lift by 6%-18% （depending on wing kinematics at stroke reversal） and slightly increases the mean drag. Therefore, it is detrimental to the aerodynamic performance of the flapping wing.

Unsteady aerodynamics modeling for flight dynamics application

In view of engineering application, it is practicable to decompose the aerodynamics into three components： the static aerodynamics, the aerodynamic increment due to steady rotations, and the aerodynamic increment due to unsteady separated and vortical flow. The first and the second components can be presented in conventional forms, while the third is described using a one-order differential equation and a radial-basis-function （RBF） network. For an aircraft configuration, the mathematical models of 6- component aerodynamic coefficients are set up from the wind tunnel test data of pitch, yaw, roll, and coupled yawroll large-amplitude oscillations. The flight dynamics of an aircraft is studied by the bifurcation analysis technique in the case of quasi-steady aerodynamics and unsteady aerodynam- ics, respectively. The results show that： （1） unsteady aerodynamics has no effect upon the existence of trim points, but affects their stability; （2） unsteady aerodynamics has great effects upon the existence, stability, and amplitudes of periodic solutions; and （3） unsteady aerodynamics changes the stable regions of trim points obviously. Furthermore, the dynamic responses of the aircraft to elevator deflections are inspected. It is shown that the unsteady aerodynamics is beneficial to dynamic stability for the present aircraft. Finally, the effects of unsteady aerodynamics on the post-stall maneuverability

Impact Analysis of Fluid-structure Coupling Embedded Weapon Bay

The coupling behavior of the imbedded weapon store occurring between the local unsteady flow field round the store and the structure response on the processing of opening its bay-door is simulated by using numerical method based on computational fluid mechanics(CFD).The transient aerodynamic behaviors when opening door under various flight altitudes and the corresponding structure deformation evolution in the unsteady flow fields are analyzed respectively and presented.The rules of aircraft attitude parameters′impacting to the responses of structure and the bay-door′s opening process are obtained by comparing with the analysis results.These rules can be applied to the structure design of bay-door and route specification of missile when disengaged and launched from within store.

Sparse grid-based polynomial chaos expansion for aerodynamics of an airfoil with uncertainties

The uncertainties can generate fluctuations with aerodynamic characteristics. Uncertainty Quantification（UQ） is applied to compute its impact on the aerodynamic characteristics.In addition, the contribution of each uncertainty to aerodynamic characteristics should be computed by uncertainty sensitivity analysis. Non-Intrusive Polynomial Chaos（NIPC） has been successfully applied to uncertainty quantification and uncertainty sensitivity analysis. However, the non-intrusive polynomial chaos method becomes inefficient as the number of random variables adopted to describe uncertainties increases. This deficiency becomes significant in stochastic aerodynamic analysis considering the geometric uncertainty because the description of geometric uncertainty generally needs many parameters. To solve the deficiency, a Sparse Grid-based Polynomial Chaos（SGPC） expansion is used to do uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis for stochastic aerodynamic analysis considering geometric and operational uncertainties. It is proved that the method is more efficient than non-intrusive polynomial chaos and Monte Carlo Simulation（MSC） method for the stochastic aerodynamic analysis. By uncertainty quantification, it can be learnt that the flow characteristics of shock wave and boundary layer separation are sensitive to the geometric uncertainty in transonic region. The uncertainty sensitivity analysis reveals the individual and coupled effects among the uncertainty parameters.

Robust design and analysis of a conformal expansion nozzle with inverse-design idea

This paper examines robust optimization design and analysis of a conformal expansion nozzle of flying wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle （UAV） with the inverse-design idea. In view of flow features and stealth constraints, the inverse-design idea is described and the uncertainty-based robust design model is presented. A robust design system employs this model to combine deterministic optimization and robust optimization and is applied into design of a conformal expansion nozzle. The results indicate that design optimization can conform to the anticipation of the inversedesign idea and significantly improve the aerodynamic performance that meet the requirement of 6σ. The present method is a feasible nozzle design strategy that integrates robust optimization and inverse-design.

A Scalable Infrastructure for Online Performance Analysis on CFD Application

The fast-growing demand of computational fluid dynamics（CFD） application for computing resources stimulates the development of high performance computing（HPC） and meanwhile raises new requirements for the technology of parallel application performance monitor and analysis.In response to large-scale and long-time running for the application of CFD,online and scalable performance analysis technology is required to optimize the parallel programs as well as to improve their operational efficiency.As a result,this research implements a scalable infrastructure for online performance analysis on CFD application with homogeneous or heterogeneous system.The infrastructure is part of the parallel application performance monitor and analysis system（PAPMAS） and is composed of two modules which are scalable data transmission module and data storage module.The paper analyzes and elaborates this infrastructure in detail with respect to its design and implementation.Furthermore,some experiments are carried out to verify the rationality and high efficiency of this infrastructure that could be adopted to meet the practical needs.