Modified Unsteady Vortex Lattice Method for Aerodynamics of Flapping Wing Models

Motivated by extensive possible applications of flapping-wing micro-air vehicles (MAVs) to various different areas, there has been an increasing amount of research related to this issue. In the stage of preliminary studies, one of the most important tasks is to predict the aerodynamic forces generated by the flapping motion. Studying aerodynamics of insects is an efficient way to approach the preliminary design of flapping-wing MAVs. In this paper, a modified version of an Unsteady Vortex Lattice Method (UVLM) is developed to compute aerodynamic forces appearing in flapping-wing models. A hawkmoth-like wing with kinematics based on the real motion is used for the simulations in this paper.