UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Dragonfly wings are highly corrugated, which increases the stiffness and strength of the wing significantly and results in a lightweight structure with good aerodynamic performance. This makes the airfoil shape suitable for the application in Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) for research in both military and civilian applications. So understanding the aerodynamics of simplified dragonfly airfoil in gliding flight at low Reynolds number is very important. In this study, the aerodynamic performances of the 2-D corrugated airfoil for 5, 7 and 10 degree angle of attack at Reynolds number 34,000 are numerically analyzed and also validated with the results of the numerical investigation carried out by Barnes and Visbal. The simulations have been carried out for 5, 7 degree angle of attack for constant inflow condition and 10 degree angle of attack for both constant and variable inflow conditions at frequencies 14.5 Hz, 29 Hz(fundamental frequency), 43.5 Hz. The detail study of the flow fields such as vorticity, streamlines, turbulent kinetic energy and pressure coefficient have been carried out for these angles of attack for better flow visualization.

Thesis: Al-muntasir, Mahabubur Rahman

Thesis Supervisor: Dr. A.B.M. Toufique Hasan