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Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics

Air Force Institute of Technology

Micro air vehicles

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

The Characterization Of Material Properties And Structural Dynamics Of The Manduca Sexta Forewing For Application To Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle Design, Ryan P. O'Hara Sep 2012

The Characterization Of Material Properties And Structural Dynamics Of The Manduca Sexta Forewing For Application To Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle Design, Ryan P. O'Hara

Theses and Dissertations

The Manduca Sexta species of moth serves as a source of biological inspiration for the future of micro air vehicle flapping flight. The ability of this species to hover in flapping flight has warranted investigation into the critical material, structural, and geometric properties of the forewing of this biological specimen. A rigorous morphological study of the Manduca Sexta forewing was conducted to characterize the physical and material properties of the biological forewing for the purpose of developing an advanced parametric three dimensional model finite element analysis (FEA) model. This FEA model was tuned to match the experimentally determined structural dynamics …


A Structural Dynamic Analysis Of A Manduca Sexta Forewing, Travis W. Sims Mar 2010

A Structural Dynamic Analysis Of A Manduca Sexta Forewing, Travis W. Sims

Theses and Dissertations

Micro air vehicles (MAVs) are intended for future intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance use. To adequately fulfill a clandestine capacity, MAVs must operate in close proximity to their intended target without eliciting counter-observation. This objective, along with DARPA’s constraint of a sub-15 centimeter span, requires future MAVs to mimic insect appearance and flight characteristics. This thesis describes an experimental method for conducting a structural analysis of a Manduca Sexta (hawkmoth) forewing. Geometry is captured via computed tomography (CT), and frequency data is collected using laser vibrometry in air and vacuum. A finite element (FE) model is constructed using quadratic beams and …


Three Component Velocity Measurements In The Tip Vortex Of A Micro-Air-Vehicle, Hong-Joon Park Sep 2006

Three Component Velocity Measurements In The Tip Vortex Of A Micro-Air-Vehicle, Hong-Joon Park

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to improve the MAV that will be used for battle damage assessment and reconnaissance or local surveillance through the experiments in AFIT wind tunnel. The experiments were performed to investigate the wing displacement and wing tip vortex interaction. To conduct the experiments, telescopic survey tool and tri-axial hot-wire anemometer was utilized. The results indicate that wing tip displacement of the flexible wing was approximately 8 times that of the rigid wing in an unstalled condition and data suggests that flexible wing has a denser core-distribution of velocity within the wing tip vortex and delays …