Effects of uniform vertical inflow perturbations on the performance of flapping wings.

Flapping wings have attracted significant interest for use in miniature unmanned flying vehicles. Although numerous studies have investigated the performance of flapping wings under quiescent conditions, effects of freestream disturbances on their performance remain under-explored. In this study, we experimentally investigated the effects of uniform vertical inflows on flapping wings using a Reynolds-scaled apparatus operating in water at Reynolds number ≈ 3600.

Performance of passively pitching flapping wings in the presence of vertical inflows.

The successful implementation of passively pitching flapping wings strongly depends on their ability to operate efficiently in wind disturbances. In this study, we experimentally investigated the interaction between a uniform vertical inflow perturbation and a passive-pitching flapping wing using a Reynolds-scaled apparatus operating in water at Reynolds number ≈3600. A parametric study was performed by systematically varying the Cauchy number () of the wings from 0.