Flight Performance Estimation of Bionic Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle

仿生微型扑翼飞行器飞行性能计算与分析

¹ School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
² Beijing Institute of Aerospace Technology, Beijing 100074, China

Received: 1 September 2017

Abstract

Bionic flapping-wing micro air vehicle(MAV) has received worldwide attention.The flight performance calculation is an important step in the conceptual design.The differences in performance estimation methods between the flapping-wing and conventional fixed-wing aircraft are analyzed.Based on the results of the aerodynamic estimation and wind tunnel experimental measurement, the flight performance estimation method of flapping-wing micro air vehicle is proposed, and the performance of level flight, climbing, and duration are calculated and analyzed.The frequency represents the accelerator in a certain extent, while the frequency is coupled with lift and thrust.The results show that there may be two stable cruising states at certain frequencies, one is the small angle of attack with high speed, the other is the small speed with big angle of attack, and the two states have different power consumption.According to the parameters of the vehicle, climbing performance and duration performance can be obtained.The speed versus power characteristic curve is a U shape, minimum slope of the U curve can be obtained through the mapping method to calculate the farthest flight speed, and the minimum velocity of U-shaped curve is the speed for longest duration.The proposed flight performance calculation method can be used to evaluate the flight capability of bionic micro flapping-wing air vehicle.

摘要

仿生微型扑翼飞行器是近年来国内外的研究热点, 飞行性能计算是飞行器总体设计过程中的重要步骤。首先分析了扑翼飞行器与常规固定翼飞行器在性能估算方法方面的不同之处, 基于扑翼气动计算与风洞实验测量的结果, 提出了扑翼飞行器性能计算方法, 并对所研制的扑翼飞行器的平飞性能、爬升性能、续航性能进行了计算与分析。扑翼的频率在一定程度上代表油门, 而频率和升力、推力均是耦合的关系。计算结果表明, 在一定频率下, 可能存在2种稳定巡航状态, 一种是小迎角大速度, 一种是大迎角小速度, 两者对应不同的功耗。根据飞行器的参数可以计算出上升性能和续航性能, 扑翼飞行器的速度功率特性曲线为U字形, 通过作图法可求得曲线的最小斜率为远航速度, U形曲线的速度最小值为久航速度。该飞行性能计算方法可用于评估仿生扑翼飞行器的飞行能力。