Investigation of the aerodynamic performance of the dragonfly-inspired tandem wings considering the coupling between the stroke plane and phase difference

The dragonfly's tandem wings can make full use of the interference of various spatial vortices to obtain efficient flight capability. The complex coupling among multiple motion parameters will have an important influence on the interference between the forewing (FW) and hindwing (HW). In this paper, the aerodynamic performance of the dragonfly-inspired tandem wings is analyzed using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method considering the coupling effect of the stroke plane and phase difference. The variation of the force coefficient, vortex structure and aerodynamic efficiency of the tandem wings in forward flight are analyzed, respectively. The results show that the stroke plane angle affects the distribution of the leading edge vortex (LEV) and trailing edge vortex (TEV), which primarily controls the trend of horizontal force variation. The phase difference of tandem wings will change the fluctuation of the horizontal force coefficient curve by affecting the meeting time of the forewing and hindwing. However, with the increase of stroke plane angle, the fluctuation of aerodynamic coefficient caused by phase difference will decrease. The propulsion efficiency(η) and power loading(PL) can be improved through increasing the stroke plane angle and selecting a reasonable phase difference. The conclusion can provide theoretical guidance for the design of the dragonfly-inspired tandem flapping wing aircraft (DTFWA) and the choice of motion parameters.