Computational Fluid-Structure Interaction Design Approach for Polymer Micromachined Insect-mimetic Flapping Wings of Air Vehicles

This paper proposes 2.5-dimensional polymer micromachined insect-mimetic wings based on a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) design concept that enables natural deformations like cambering and pitching under fluid forces. Instead of directly employing an analysis for the FSI, an iterative structural Design Window (DW) search is used to reduce the computational cost significantly. A DW search using the iterative method refines the initial design by addressing fabrication challenges and tuning it to meet manufacturability constraints. The successful fabrication and demonstration of the final design solution for a wing demonstrates the effectiveness of the iterative DW search based on the FSI design concept. Furthermore, a pixel model is introduced to convert an unstructured to a structured mesh for the FSI analysis to further reduce the computational cost. The camber and pitching error between the unstructured and structured meshes is minimized to achieve insect-like aerodynamic performance by adjusting the elastic moduli of center and root veins. Finally, an analysis for the FSI is conducted, based on the parameters obtained from the pixel model to evaluate the flight performance on the basis of the lift, camber, and pitching required by an actual insect to maneuver and hover.