Investigation of aerodynamic characteristics on bio inspired wings

Airfoil and aerodynamics have been the subject of interest for many researchers working on issues related to Aircraft wing, turbine wing, unmanned aerial vehicles, micro-aircraft design and dynamics, especially in recent years. For many years, many animal and plant structures and systems in nature have inspired the designs and systems developed by engineers and architects. In this thesis, a bio-inspired wing model was created to take advantage of the aerodynamic properties of the maple seed. In order to determine the aerodynamic characteristics of this model, a prototype of the model was produced using a 3-D printer and used in experimental and numerical studies. Experiments were conducted in an open- flow wind tunnel at air speeds of U=5 m/s, 10 m/s and 14 m/s; lift and drag coefficient values were obtained for Re=12300, 24600 and 34440 at attack angles ranging from -50° to +50°. In addition, a CAD solid model of the prototype wing was created and Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis was performed using ANSYS R2020 analysis software. Numerical tests were repeated with different solution methods and different turbulence models, and analyses were continued with the SST-k-ω turbulence model. After mesh independence studies, velocity and pressure distributions were obtained for different attack angles, and calculated lift and drag coefficients were compared with experimental results. Analysis showed that the model showed an asymmetric wing feature, and the maximum lift coefficient for all Re numbers was obtained at positive attack angles , α =35º, and α =-40º at negative attack angles. For all Re numbers, the minimum drag coefficient was obtained at an angle of approximately α =7º. Aerodynamic performance has been shown to increase slightly with Re number, but the maximum CL/CD ratio for all Re numbers occurs at the attack angle α =18º. The maximum value was CL / CD=1,736 and for Re=3440. At negative attack angles, the extremum value in all Re numbers occurred at approximately α=-3º and the minimum value was CL/CD=-2.13 for Re=3440. Key words: Bio-inspired airfoil design, Bionic wing, aerodynamic performance, experimental aerodynamics, numerical aerodynamics, turbulence models. 2021, xi + 105 pages.