Low-cost Test Rig for Aerodynamic Evaluation of Ornithopters

E. Balasubramanian; A. Sasitharan; U. Chandrasekhar; K. Karthik; Lung-Jieh Yang

doi:10.6180/jase.201806_21(2).0005

Low-cost Test Rig for Aerodynamic Evaluation of Ornithopters

Balasubramanian E. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.¹, Sasitharan A.², Chandrasekhar U.¹, Karthik K.³ and Lung-Jieh Yang⁴

¹Vel Tech University, Avadi, Chennai, India
²Bubblefly Technology Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, India
³Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai, India
⁴Department of Mechanical and Electromechanical Engineering, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taiwan 251, R.O.C.

Received: October 17, 2017
Accepted: February 27, 2018
Publication Date: June 1, 2018

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.201806_21(2).0005

ABSTRACT

Experimental assessment of lift and thrust forces of flapping wing micro aerial vehicles (FWMAVs)isofparamountinteresttoassessitspayloadcarryingcapability.Inthiswork, a simple and cost effective test bench is developed to measure the forces of ornithopter. Two compressive load cells are calibrated and assembled in an appropriate mode to capture the generated forces. Alabview based graphical user interface is designed to acquire real time force data and thereby control the angle of attack of ornithopter. Through varying wind speeds, flapping frequencies and angle of attacks (AOA), wind tunnel experiments are conducted for two ornithopters E-Bird and Golden Snitch, with wing spans of 27 cm and 21.5 cm respectively. Experimental results suggested that, E-Bird has attained maximum lift force of 28.7 g at 60 AOA and golden snitch has 13.5 g lift force at 35 AOA. The developed compact test rig can measure the lift and thrust forces upto 200 grams with an accuracy 0.1 gram of FWMAVs.

Keywords: Ornithopter, Lift and Thrust Forces, Load Cells, Data Acquisition, Wind Tunnel, Graphical User Interface

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