Coupling Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Method with Finite Element Method for Air-solid Interaction Modelling of Clapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles

Inspired by natural birds and insects, a flapping wing micro air vehicle with a double fling-clap mechanism is presented to achieve flapping flight. Smoothed particle hydrodynamics model has proven to be successfully applied to implement water cases. This study focuses on the fluid-solid interaction model coupling smoothed particle hydrody-namics method with the finite element method to handle three-dimensional numerical simulations of flexible clapping wings. Additionally, a validation study is carried out to examine the accuracy of our numerical model. Using the proposed model, analysis under a parametric study shows wingspan of the clapping wings is highly correlated with lift, lift/drag, and lift coefficient. This study provides a high-fidelity air-solid interaction model towards flexible clapping wings and a better understanding of the aerodynamic characteristics of clapping wing micro air vehicles.