Transient Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis of a Solid State Ornithopter Wing

One of the means of flight is via flapping and there were many attempts to mimic the wing motion of a bird for centuries. One interesting concept for achieving flight via flapping is the so-called solid-state ornithopter concept which works by using induced strain actuators such as piezoelectric materials for flapping. In this research, we seek to gain a better understanding of the feasibility and performance of the solid-state ornithopter concept. In this paper, the purpose is to analyze a solid state ornithopter wing concept and to study the effect of different geometric parameters. A two-way fluid-structure interaction analysis method is utilized since the geometry of the wing is changing throughout the flapping cycle, and the fluid and the solid domains interact significantly. A parameterized model is utilized in both solid and fluid domains, and the two domains are coupled. Different geometric parameters are defined in the model so that the system-level performance metrics as a function of each parameter can be examined.