International Journal of Intelligent Unmanned Systems

Aerodynamic modelling of flapping flight using lifting line theory

Joydeep Bhowmik Debopam Das Saurav Kumar Ghosh
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To cite this document:
Joydeep Bhowmik Debopam Das Saurav Kumar Ghosh, (2013),"Aerodynamic modelling of flapping flight
using lifting line theory", International Journal of Intelligent Unmanned Systems, Vol. 1 Iss 1 pp. 36 - 61
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IJIUS
1,1
Aerodynamic modelling of
flapping flight using lifting
line theory
36 Joydeep Bhowmik, Debopam Das and Saurav Kumar Ghosh
Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India

Abstract
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Purpose – The purpose of the work is to design a flapping wing that generates net positive
propulsive force and vertical force over a flapping cycle operating at a given freestream velocity.
In addition, an optimal wing is designed based on the comparison of the force estimated from the
quasi-steady theory, with the wind-tunnel experiments. Based on the designed wing configuration,
a flapping wing ornithopter is fabricated.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a theoretical aerodynamic model of the
design of an ornithopter with specific twist distribution that results generation of substantial net
positive vertical force and thrust over a cycle at non-zero advance ratio. The wing has a specific but
different twist distribution during the downstroke and the upstroke that maintains the designed angle
of attack during the strokes. The wing is divided into spanwise strips and Prandtl’s lifting line theory
is applied to estimate aerodynamic forces with the assumptions of quasi-steady flow and the wings are
without any dihedral or anhedral. Spanwise circulation distribution is obtained and hence lift is
calculated. The lift is resolved along the freestream velocity and perpendicular to the freestream
velocity to obtain vertical force and propulsive thrust force. Experiments are performed in a wind
tunnel to find the forces generated in a flapping cycle which compares well with the theoretical
estimation at low flying speeds.
Findings – The estimated aerodynamic force indicates whether the wing geometry and operating
conditions are sufficient to carry the weight of the vehicle for a sustainable flight. The variation of the
aerodynamic forces with varying flapping frequencies and freestream velocities has been illustrated
and compared with experimental data that shows a reasonable match with the theoretical estimations.
Based on the calculations a prototype has been fabricated and successfully flown.
Research limitations/implications – The theory does not take into account the unsteady effects
and estimates the aerodynamic forces at wing level condition. It doesn’t predict stall and ignores
structural deformations due to aerodynamic loads. The airfoil section is only specified by the chord,
zero lift angle of attack, lift slope, profile drag coefficient and angle of attack as given inputs.
To fabricate a light weight wing that maintains a very accurate geometric twist and camber
distribution as per the theoretical requirement is challenging.
Practical implications – Useful for designing ornithopter wing (preferably bigger) involving an
unswept rigid spar with flapping and twisting.
Originality/value – The novelty of the present wing design is the appropriate spanwise geometric
twisting about the leading edge spar.
Keywords Ornithopter, Lifting line, Flapping, MAV, Wing twist, Upstroke, Downstroke,
Aerodynamics, Design
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Flapping wing flying machines have been envisaged as bio-mimicking mini/micro
International Journal of Intelligent
Unmanned Systems
aerial vehicles (MAVs) and several models have been developed to date. The additional
Vol. 1 No. 1, 2013
pp. 36-61
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2049-6427 The authors would like to acknowledge the National Programme of Micro Ariel Vehicle
DOI 10.1108/20496421311298134 (NPMICAV) of AR&DB and DST, India for partial support of this work.
 requirement of an MAV is its invisibility to radars. This means it should be silent and Modelling of
small as far as possible. A bird or an insect type MAV would be an excellent choice flapping flight
in this respect. The MAVs are classified based on the size. The mini aerial vehicle
size typically varies from 300 to 2,500 mm and that of micro aerial vehicle will be
less than 300 mm.
In pursuit of understanding how birds and insects fly, many theoretical modellings
have been developed so far. But during the 19th century when fixed wing aircrafts 37
were successfully flown, Prandtl’s lifting line theory served as a good method to predict
the aerodynamic forces of the wing. This method has also been adopted by researchers
like (Betteridge and Archer, 1974; Archer et al., 1979), in which they modeled
a torsionally flexible rigid wing flapping about the spar axis. Unfortunately flow
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over a flapping wing is strictly not steady so attempts have been made in unsteady
lifting line theory, for example (Phillips et al., 1981).
On the other hand computational methods also predicted more generalized wing
geometry with reasonable accuracy, for example, panel methods by Ashley and
Landahl (1985), Ashby et al. (1988) and Katz and Plotkin (1991). An unsteady panel
method has also been implemented to model the aerodynamics of flapping wing for
moths by Smith et al. (1996).
Another method is a two-dimensional method using thin airfoil theory developed by
DeLaurier (1993) and DeLaurier and Harris (1993). Their method is, however, well
applicable in stability of helicopter rotor blades having small deflections. Twisting
of wings is an important aspect that greatly affects the efficiency and performance of
flight. Twisting can be provided actively or passively. Aero-elastic models developed
by Theodorsen (1935) modeled aerodynamic instability and flutter in aircraft wings.
Jones (1980) mathematically predicted an ideal distribution of the additional lift during
slow flapping. On the other hand several experimental works have also been carried
out. Hertel (1963/1966) showed a correlation of the weight of different birds and their
flapping frequency. Bigger birds like the pelican flap at low 1 Hz whereas small birds
like humming birds can beat their wings up to 60 Hz. Dickinson et al. (1999) also
presented a detailed work on insect flight performance due to delayed stall, rotational
circulation and wake capture. Ho et al. (2003) presented a detailed study of force
measurements and showed the variation of lift and thrust coefficients with varying
flight conditions. Numerous experiments and flow visualizations have been carried out
on tethered and free flying insects by Adrian et al. (2004) and humming birds by
Tobalske et al. (2007). Slow motion cameras have also been used to capture the
kinematics and geometric twist of the wings. Force and PIV measurements are
conducted on a flapping model goose with a wingspan of 1.13 m by Hubel and Tropea
(2009). Experiments on flapping wing models of different shapes and size are carried
out by Banerjee et al. (2011) robots and insect flight by Ellington (1984) and Ellington
et al. (1996). The present method extends the application of lifting line theory both
during upstroke and downstroke with a specified distributed twist for estimation of
forces and its verifications with experiments.

Modelling of flapping flight using lifting line theory

In the present work, the wing of an ornithopter has been designed with specific twist
distribution that produces sufficient lift and thrust over a cycle at non-zero advance
ratio. The twist distribution maintains the designed angle of attack during the strokes.
The wing is divided into spanwise strips to estimate aerodynamic forces using
Prandtl’s lifting line theory. Quasi-steady assumption is made to estimate the forces
 IJIUS when wings are without any dihedral or anhedral. The forces estimated using this
1,1 theory are expected to reduce with dihedral or anhedral and hence a factor of safety is
used in the design. The novelty of the present wing design is the appropriate spanwise
geometric twisting about the leading edge spar axis. This simple theory turns out to
be a tool for quick estimation of the performance of a flapping flight that has lead us
to develop a flyable prototype MAV (Bhowmik and Das, 2011).
38
Assumptions
The wing planform is elliptical and unswept. The wing maintains a specific
geometrical twist for the upstroke and also a specific but different geometrical twist
during the downstroke. The geometries are not affected due to changing wing loads.
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The estimated vertical force and thrust force is assumed to be the average of the same
generated at the upstroke and the downstroke, respectively. Wing stall is also not
considered. The model considered is one of the simplest in nature where flow is
considered quasi-steady, i.e. unsteady effects are not included. The flow is also
potential but an overall profile drag coefficient is considered in addition to the induced
drag of the wing.

Nomenclature
a local angle of attack (or AOA)
aCL¼0 angle of attack for zero lift
ai induced angle of attack
f, Ø frequency and amplitude of flapping
O angular velocity of the wing spar
Vr resultant velocity at wing section
od downwash velocity
VN freestream velocity
Vtip wing tip velocity due to flapping only
ft, fv sectional thrust and vertical force
FT, FV total thrust and total vertical force
F V; F T Average vertical force and thrust on a flapping cycle
as angle between hinge axis and VN
yt angle between VN and Vr
~ transform variable
G, Cd0 circulation, profile drag coefficient
P, T power, torque on wing
r, a0 density of air, lift curve slope.
b tip to tip wing span at wings level
c, C0, C Chord, root chord and geometric mean chord
S total wing area
yi geometric twist of wing section with respect to the hinge axis
Le, De, Di, D0 effective lift, effective drag, induced drag and profile drag

Wing details and flapping parameters

Figure 1 shows the schematic elliptical wing geometry, flapping parameters and the
coordinate axes used as primary inputs for calculation in the present model. The wing
has an elliptical planform and flaps through angle Ø. The angle Ø1 and Ø2 are defined
 (a) b Modelling of
flapping flight

C0 39
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(b)

Top dead center

Ø
Ø1
Level
position Ø2

Bottom dead center

(c)

Hinge axis

Figure 1.
(a) The wing planform
s
(elliptical), (b) front view
of the flapping plane
V∞ showing the wing spars at
the top and bottom dead
centers, (c) side view of
the wing at the top
Note: The hinge axis center line makes an angle (s) with the free dead center
stream velocity

with respect to the wing level position. A dihedral is obtained throughout the
flapping cycle when Ø14Ø2 which enhances the role stability and used in the
prototype. The wings are hinged to a common axis with a pin and this axis line makes
an angle as with the freestream velocity. Further details of the wing fabrication are
given in Bhowmik (2012).
 IJIUS The parameters used in this study are:
1,1 . Advance ratio: this is the ratio of the freestream velocity (VN) to the tip velocity
of the wing.
. Time period of flapping: this is the time required to complete one cycle.
. Average angular velocity of flapping (O): this is defined as the ratio of flapping
40 amplitude to the time period of flapping.
. Effective lift and drag: by convention lift and drag is defined as the force normal
and parallel to VN, respectively. But in case of flapping the local airfoil section
sees a velocity Vr to which the lift is perpendicular. So to avoid confusion we call
this lift as effective lift Le and the drag as effective drag De.
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Advantage of flexible wing over rigid wing

Figure 2 illustrates the differences in motion between the rigid wing as considered by
Archer et al. (1979) and flexible wings of the present study. Figure 2(a) and (b) depict
the scenario if the current model is subjected to a constant twist (yi) throughout
the span similar to that of model of Archer et al. (1979). Figure 2(c) shows the variable
spanwise twist (yi) during the downstroke as used in the present work. Similar
spanwise twist of different twist distribution is also used in upstroke. Thus the present
model closely mimics the observed kinematics of a bird’s wing during its flight.

(a)

i

(b)
i

(c)

Figure 2.
A rigid wing
 Figure 3 shows the spanwise variation of a for a rigid wing, operating at different Modelling of
advance ratios, keeping f ¼ 8 Hz, Ø ¼ 601 and at yi ¼ 7201 at as ¼ 01. The half span flapping flight
of the wing is 0.25 m. The corresponding advance ratio is shown in the bracket in the
legend of the figure. It is observed that at zero advance ratios, the angle of attack is
constant throughout the span. As the advance ratio increases, the root to tip variation
of a (i.e. Da) initially increases and then decreases. Figure 3 follows from Equation (1)
and can be derived easily from the vector diagram of Figure 5: 41
O:y
a ¼ tan1  yi ð1Þ
VN
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If a rigid wing operates at an advance ratio 1.433 (At 8 Hz and 6 m/s, see Figure 3) at
which the variation of root to tip a is 15 to þ 151 (or Da is 301, see Figure 4) some part
of the wing will be on the verge of stall or completely stalled under steady states. The
wing can be given a specific geometric twist so that a desired a is maintained
throughout. The main objective of this analysis is to estimate the power consumption
for producing a required vertical force and thrust on a wing with a given distributed
spanwise twist. A flexible wing thus will be capable of maintaining a desired spanwise
angle of attack and therefore could be more efficient than a rigid wing.

80 V∞
70 0 m/s
1 m/s
60 2 m/s
3 m/s
50 5 m/s
Increasing 6 m/s
40
 (degrees)

advance ratio Infinite

30
20
Figure 3.
Δ

10
Spanwise a variation of a
0 rigid wing if allowed to
–10 twist 7201 about the spar
axis during the upstroke
–20 and downstroke at
f=8 Hz
–30 different speeds with 8 Hz
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 flapping frequency
y/ wingspan

70
60
Δ (degrees)

50
40
30
20
10 Figure 4.
0 Variation of Da with
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 advance ratio
J
 IJIUS Theory
1,1 The method presented here is based on the Prandtl’s lifting line equation on a flapping
wing at the level position similar to (Betteridge and Archer, 1974). A certain geometric
twist distribution (spanwise aCl ¼ 0 and angle of attack is provided during the
downstroke and upstroke for calculation of net vertical and thrust forces. The average
of these is taken to estimate the net force in a flapping cycle. The forces are estimated
42 using the generalized Prandtl’s lifting line equation as given below:
Z b=2
2Gðy0 Þ 1 dG=dy
aðy0 Þ ¼ þ aL¼0 þ dy ð2Þ
a0 V1 Cðy0 Þ 4pV1 b=2 y0  y
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X
GðyÞ ¼ 2bV1 An sinðnyÞ ð3Þ

Derivation is available in any standard textbook of aerodynamics. Equation (2) is an

integra-differential equation and can be used for most unswept and level wings. During
downstroke and upstroke, this equation is used to model the vortex wake and the
spanwise circulation distribution is determined at the wing level condition, assuming
elliptical planform of unswept wings with inviscid, steady flow.
The downstroke equations. This is the movement of the wing from the top dead
center to the bottom dead center and provides most of the vertical and thrust forces.
The vector diagram of forces and velocities are shown in Figure 5.
It may be noted that the heaving velocity component O.y is normal to the hinge axis.
From the geometry of a wing section in Figure 5 the following equations are derived:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Vr ¼ ðO:y: cosðas ÞÞ2 þ ðV1 þ O:y: sinððas ÞÞ2 ð4Þ

O ¼ 2Øf ð5Þ

fT De

fV

Le

Hinge axis

s
V∞
d t
Figure 5. i
Vr
Wing section with Ω.y
velocity and force vectors 
during downstroke
 The twist in the wing is depended on the angle (yt) between the (VN) and (Vr) and Modelling of
section wise angle of attack a. The wing twist yt, changes with advance ratio flapping flight
and written as:
 
O:y: cosðas Þ
yt ¼ tan1 ð6Þ
V1 þ O:y: sinðas Þ
43
In Figure 6, y varies from 01 (at tip) to 901 (at root). This angular sector is divided
into “n” equal angular divisions, whose projections on the wing are at a distance “y”
from the root where:
 
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b
y¼  cosðyÞ ð7Þ
2

The wing is divided into equal angular divisions and projected on the wing planform
as shown in Figure 7(a) and “y” is calculated from Equation (7). This produces a set
of points having larger strip thickness near the root and gradually thinning up near the
tip instead of having strips of equal lengths.
The key difference between a fixed and a flapping wing is that in a flapping wing
the wing section sees the relative velocity Vr instead of the freestream velocity VN. The
G distribution given in Equation (3) can be written as:
X
GðyÞ ¼ 2:b:Vr : An : sinðnyÞ ð8Þ

Trailing edge

Root
Tip

dy
Figure 6.
y Leading edge Back view of the wing at
level condition showing
b/2 the elementary strips and
relation between y and y
 IJIUS
1,1

44
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Figure 7.
Dividing the wing into
elementary strips Notes: (a) Equal angular divisions and then projecting and
(b) strips of equal length which is shown for comparison

Substituting Equation (8) in (2) and after simplification, a system of linear equations
for different values of y is obtained as:
X
mðyÞ:aa ðyÞ: sinðyÞ ¼ A2nþ1 : sinfð2n þ 1Þyg:fð2n þ 1Þmy þ sinðyÞg ð9Þ

where n varies from 0 to infinite for a continuous distribution and:

a0 :cðyÞ
mðyÞ ¼ ð10Þ
4b

aa ðyÞ ¼ aðyÞ  aCL ¼0 :ðyÞ ð11Þ

Solve for the Fourier coefficients A1, A2, A3, etc. and substitute in Equation (8) to
get G (y).
Effective Lift (lift normal to Vr instead of VN) per unit span, ai and Di can be
found as:
Le ðyÞ ¼ GðyÞ:r:Vr :dy ð12Þ

X sin ny
ai ¼ An : ð13Þ
sin y

Di ¼ Le ðyÞ: sin ai ð14Þ

1 2
De ¼ Di þ Cd0 :r:V1 :Astrip ð15Þ
2
The total drag is estimated as the sum of the induced drag Equation (14) and profile
drag where, Cd0 is the profile drag coefficient.
 Resolving the components of effective lift and drag along and normal to the Modelling of
freestream velocity, thrust ( fT) and vertical force ( fV) are obtained (see Figure 5): flapping flight
fV ¼ Le ðyÞ: cos yt þ De ðyÞ: sin yt ð16Þ

fT ¼ Le ðyÞ: sin yt þ De ðyÞ: cos yt ð17Þ

45
Equations (16) and (17) above can be plotted to see the spanwise vertical and thrust
force distribution. Therefore, the total vertical and thrust force is obtained by
integrating throughout the wing span. In this case the integration is done numerically
by summing up fVdy and fTdy from root to the wing tip:
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Z þb=2
FV ¼ fV dy ð18Þ
b=2

Z þb=2
FT ¼ fT dy ð19Þ
b=2

Similarly the wing torque is obtained by integrating the elementary moment due to the
component of the force on the flapping stroke plane:
Z þ2b
T¼ ffV : cos as  ft : sin as g:y:dy ð20Þ
b2

Once the torque is obtained, the power can be calculated as a product of the torque and
the angular speed of the wing:

P ¼ T:O ð21Þ

The upstroke equations. The upstroke is the movement of the wing from
the bottom dead center to the top dead center. Figure 8 shows that any section of
the wing during upstroke can either produce positive fV and negative fT (for positive
cambered part of the wing) or negative FV and positive fT (for negative cambered
part of the wing).
Figure 9 shows the vector diagram of balance of forces and velocities on the
elementary section of the wing during upstroke. During the upstroke, if there is net
positive vertical force, the net torque will cause the wing to flap up on its own; the
power for such instant will be negative. Formulae for different quantities during
upstroke can be derived from Figure 9 similar to that during downstroke as shown in
Equations (22)-(25). The rest of the quantities are the same as Equations (12)-(15). The
upstroke vertical force, thrust and power are found similar to that explained in
downstroke equations, Equations (18)-(21):

 
O:y: cosðas Þ
yt ¼ tan1 ð22Þ
V1  O:y: sinðas Þ
 IJIUS De – fT
1,1 Vr
Le + fV Ω.y

V∞
46 Vr
Ω.y
– fV Le
V∞

De
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Figure 8. + fT
A wing section during
upstroke Notes: (a) Positive ( f V) and negative ( f T ), (b) negative ( f V)
and positive ( f T)

De
fT

Le fV

Hinge axis s α
V∞

Figure 9.
Force and velocity vectors Vr Ω.y
of a section with positive
i t
vertical force and negative
thrust during upstroke
d V∞

qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Vr ¼ ðO:y: cosðas ÞÞ2 þ ðV1  O:y: sinðas ÞÞ2 ð23Þ

fV ¼ Le ðyÞ: cos yt  De ðyÞ: sin yt ð24Þ

fT ¼ Le ðyÞ: sin yt þ De ðyÞ: cos yt ð25Þ

Methodology. The set of equations are obtained for downstroke and upstroke
separately and solved for the Fourier coefficients (A1, A3, A5 , etc.). This gives the
spanwise circulation distribution during the downstroke and upstroke. Effective lift
and thrust can then be calculated. Integrating these elementary quantities the
total effective lift, thrust and power are obtained. The net vertical force F V and
thrust force F T on a flapping cycle is the average of FV and FT during upstroke
and downstroke, respectively.
 The process may be repeated by adjusting various conditions till sufficient lift and Modelling of
thrust are produced to sustain flight. Once the flying conditions are decided, the flapping flight
geometric twist, yi can be found as shown in Equations (26) and (27) by setting as ¼ 01
in Figure 10. Once this design configuration is determined, its performance at different
advance ratios and as can also be determined:
yi ðupstrokeÞ ¼ yt þ a ð26Þ
47
yi ðdownstrokeÞ ¼ yt  a ð27Þ

Effect of advance ratio. As advance ratio increases, yt decreases and vice versa. The
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fabricated wing has a fixed geometric twist, i.e. yi is fixed. The wing then behaves
like a fixed pitch propeller which operates best at the designed advance ratio. Due to
this restriction, the angle of attack increases at low advance ratio and reduces at
high advance ratio.
For example in Figure 11(b) the freestream velocity is reduced to almost half as that
in Figure 11(a) but O.y is same (less advance ratio) thereby increasing yt. Thus the
angle of attack a increases as yt increases and vice versa. During upstroke, Figure 11(d)

α V∞
V∞ i
V∞
i
t Ω.y
Vr
Ω.y Vr α
t

V∞ Figure 10.
Geometric twist during
Notes: Sign convention: i measured anticlockwise is positive (a) upstroke |i| = |t| + ||, upstroke and downstroke
(b) downstroke |i| = |t| – ||

Hinge axis Hinge axis

s=0 s=0

i V∞ i
V∞
t t
Ω.y Ω.y Figure 11.
α Vr α (a) Velocity vectors of a
Vr
wing section at
downstroke for reference,
(b) the same section
operating at less advance
ratio causing an increase
α s=0
in a, (c) velocity vectors of
–α
s=0
a wing section at upstroke
i Hinge axis for reference, (d) the same
i
Hinge axis Vr section operating at less
Vr Ω.y
Ω.y advance ratio (same O.y
t t and reduced VN) causing
negative a
V∞ V∞
 IJIUS the a changes to negative at low advance ratios. This airfoil would generate low
1,1 lift but in the reverse camber section the vertical force would be downward producing
positive thrust. The angles of attack at different advance ratios are given in
Equations (28) and (29):
a ¼ jyt j  jyi j ðDuring downstrokeÞ ð28Þ
48
a ¼ jyi j  jyt j ðDuring upstrokeÞ ð29Þ

Effect of as. During downstroke, as the wing flaps down, a section of the wing sees an
angle of attack due to the combination of VN and O.y with the hinge axis parallel to the
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freestream velocity as shown in Figure 12(a). Figure 12(b) illustrates the scenario when
the hinge axis is set at an angle of as40 thereby increasing a by as. (the induced angle
of attack is removed for clarity). This parameter in flight is controlled by the all
movable tail. If the tail produces a pitch up moment, as would increase and vice versa.
However, while designing the wing it should be ensured that the local a does not
become so high that the wing stalls.
Similarly during upstroke, as shown in Figure 13 when the wing tilts anticlockwise
by an angle as the airfoil section in the lift producing part sees an increase in a as
shown in Figure 13(b) compared to Figure 13(a). But in the reverse cambered part of the
wing, a is likely to be negative as seen in Figure 13(c).
The impact of as thus increases a by þ as as shown in Figure 13(d) compared
to Figure 13(c). Due to combined variation of advance ratio and as the angle
of attack becomes:
a ¼ ðjyt j  jyi j þ jas jÞ ðDuring downstrokeÞ ð30Þ

a ¼ ðjyi j  jyt j þ jas jÞ ðDuring upstrokeÞ ð31Þ

Results
This section contains the theoretical results based on the above derivations.
Calculations are carried out for the upstroke and downstroke and used in predicting
the aerodynamic forces on the wings of the different models.
For analysis, wing size is taken as 50 cm tip to tip in order to give a resemblance of a
small bird with an estimated weight of 32 gF. The wing planform is taken to be

Hinge axis Hinge axis

s=0 s>0
V∞ i

V∞ i
V∞
t
Ω.y t
Ω.y
Vr α α
Vr
Figure 12.
Velocity vectors at a wing
section in downstroke
Notes: (a) For s=0° and (b) for s>0
 Hinge axis V∞
Hinge axis Modelling of
s=0 α
α s>0 flapping flight
i Vr
Vr
i
Ω.y Ω.y
t t

V∞ V∞ 49
V∞ Hinge axis
Hinge axis
s=0 s>0
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i Vr Ω.y
Vr Ω.y i
t
t
α
α V∞
V∞

Figure 13.
Notes: (a) Positively cambered section at s=0°, (b) the same section at s>0°, Velocity vectors at
(c) condition in a reverse cambered section of the wing at s=0°, a wing section
(d) condition in the reverse cambered section of the wing at s>0°

elliptical with an expectation to maximize efficiency. The fuselage and tail are designed
in proportion to this wing size. Using the theory, the aerodynamic forces and power
consumption are calculated at different flapping frequencies and VN. Specific
geometrical twist is assumed during downstroke and upstroke. The upstroke being
more critical, three types of wing geometries are tried out for the upstroke keeping the
downstroke same.
The inputs during the downstroke are: r ¼ 1.2 kg/m3, b/2 ¼ 0.25 m, C0 ¼ 0.12 m,
a0 ¼ 2~, No. of wing partitions ¼ 100, Cd0 ¼ 0.0135, acl ¼ 0 ¼ 41, a ¼ 61 throughout
the wing from root to tip and flapping amplitude is 551.
Substituting the Fourier coefficients in Equations (11), (12), (17), (18), the ( fV) and
( fT) are obtained as a function of (y), which is transformed back to normalized wing
span to get the spanwise variation during the upstroke and downstroke. Figure 14(a)
shows the computed sectional variation of vertical forces and thrust forces during the
downstroke on one wing at a flapping frequency of 8 Hz and freestream velocity of
6 m/s. The downstroke thus produces most of the vertical force and propulsive thrust.
Upstroke: the wing is twisted such a way that a part of the wing near the root has
positive camber and positive a and remaining portion up to the tip has reverse camber
and negative angle of attack. In Bhowmik and Das (2011) the calculations are carried
out for a specific upstroke wing geometry. This paper explores more cases with
different spanwise distributions of angle of attack and aCl ¼ 0 during the upstroke.
Three such case studies have been presented here. The downstroke is same for all these
cases as shown in Figure 14.

Case 1
In Case 1 during the upstroke, the hand-wing maintains a constant positive
camber and a whereas, the arm wing has a constant reverse camber and a. The
spanwise distribution of a and aCl ¼ 0 is shown in Figure 15. The resulted
 IJIUS force distribution is shown in Figure 16. The upstroke reveals where there is
1,1 positive vertical force, there is negative thrust and for negative vertical force, there is
positive thrust. The negative cambered zone toward tip produces negative vertical
force and positive thrust.

Case 2
50 This case is similar to Case 1 but instead of a constant camber and a, a variable camber
and a is used during the upstroke. Figure 17 shows the upstroke wing twist
parameters. Variation of a and aCl ¼ 0 is given by:
a ¼ m1 x2 þ m2 x þ m3 and aCl¼0 ¼ n1 x2 þ n2 x þ n3
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where the coefficients are found based on the boundary conditions:

at x ¼ 0, a and aCl ¼ 0 are known quantities at the root;
at x ¼ x1, a and aCl ¼ 0 are zero; and
at x ¼ 1, a and aCl ¼ 0 are known quantities at the tip.

2.5 10
fV Wing twist-downstroke
5
2 fT
Force distribution (N/m)

0
1.5
i (degrees)

-5
Figure 14. 1 –10
(a) Spanwise variation of
–15
( fV) and ( fT) from root (0) 0.5
to tip (1) during down –20
0
stroke (b) wing twist –25
during downstroke –0.5 –30
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

4

3 CL=0

2
Angle (degrees)

–1

–2

Figure 15. –3
Section wise geometric
and air foil lift properties –4
during upstroke (Case 1) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Normalized wingspan
 Once the coefficients are obtained, a distribution of a and aCl ¼ 0 can be obtained. Modelling of
Figure 18 shows the result where at x1 ¼ 0.6, a and aCL ¼0 are 0. This produced a more flapping flight
realistic output for the spanwise force distribution during the upstroke as in Figure 18.

Case 3
In this case, the effect of the location of the reverse camber is studied. Let the reverse
cambered zone of the arm wing be increased to 70 percent of the span from the tip as 51

35
1 Wing twist-upstroke
fV 30
Force distribution (N/m)
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0.8
fT
25
0.6

i (degrees)
0.4 20

0.2 15 Figure 16.

0 10 For Case 1 (a) Spanwise
variation of ( fV) and ( fT)
–0.2 5 from root (0) to tip (1)
–0.4
during upstroke, (b) wing
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 twist during upstroke
Normalized wingspan Normalized wingspan

4

3
CL=0
2
Angle (degrees)

1
0
–1
–2
Figure 17.
–3
Section wise geometric
–4 and aerofoil lift properties
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 during upstroke (Case 2)
Normalized wingspan

0.8 35
fV Wing twist-upstroke
30
0.6 fT
Force distribution (N/m)

25 Figure 18.
i (degrees)

0.4
20
(a) Spanwise variation of
( fV) and ( fT) from root (0)
0.2 15 to tip (1) during upstroke
with the modified
10
0 distribution of distribution
5 of a and aCl ¼ 0 (Case 2), (b)
–0.2
wing twist during
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 upstroke
Normalized wingspan Normalized wingspan
 IJIUS shown in Figure 19. The curve follows same equations as in y (I.2) but with different
1,1 coefficients.
It is observed that the spanwise loading also increases or decreases with the twist
distribution. In this case, by increasing the reverse camber part, the thrust at tip
increased but vertical force decreased. The net vertical force becomes negative but
there is a net positive thrust. The positive thrust produced at the expense of huge
52 negative vertical force near the tip as seen in Figure 20.
The average vertical and thrust forces per wing at VN ¼ 6 m/s and flapping
frequency of 8 Hz are tabulated in Table I which shows the upstroke Case 2 is the best
choice. But any of the cases would certainly provide enough vertical force to sustain
the estimated weight of 32 gF.
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4
α
3
αCL=0
2
Angle (degrees)

–1

Figure 19. –2
Section wise geometric
–3
and aerofoil lift properties
during upstroke with –4
70 percent reverse camber 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Normalized wingspan

0.4 35
Wing twist-upstroke
30
Force distribution (N/m)

0.2
25
i (degrees)

0 20

15
Figure 20. –0.2
fV
(a) Spanwise variation of 10
( fV) and ( fT) from root (0) –0.4 fT
to tip (1) during upstroke, 5
(b) Wing twist during –0.6 0
upstroke 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Normalized wingspan Normalized wingspan

Table I.
Average vertical forces Case 1 Case 2 Case 3
and thrust forces at
VN ¼ 6 m/s and f ¼ 8 Hz F V (gF) per wing 25.1 25.18 20.16
with as ¼ 01 F T (gF) per wing 3.16 4.733 6.15
 Estimation of in-flight performance Modelling of
The geometric twist of the wing during downstroke is decided as shown in Figure 14(b) flapping flight
and for upstroke as in Figure 18(b) (i.e. Case 2). With this fixed geometry, any change in
as or advance ratio will cause a change in the local angle of attack which is assumed
to be constant for the designed operating condition. As a result F V and F T are
re-calculated and plotted in Figure 21 at different flapping frequency, VN and as using
the concept presented in y(4) and y (5). Figure 21(a) shows that the average vertical force 53

180 40
8.00 Hz 8.00 Hz
160 ƒ 30 ƒ
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7.03 Hz 7.03 Hz
140
5.65 Hz 5.65 Hz
120 20 4.36 Hz
4.36 Hz
FV (gF)

FT (gF)
100
s =7° 10 s=7°
80
60 0
40
–10
20
0 –20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
V∞ (m/s) V∞ (m/s)

40
160
35 1 m/s 2m/s 1 m/s 2 m/s
V∞ V∞
30 3 m/s 4m/s 140 3 m/s 4 m/s
5 m/s 6 m/s 5 m/s 6 m/s
25 120
20 s=7°
100
FV (gF)

FT (gF)

15
10 80
5 60
0 40
–5
–10 s =7° 20
–15 0
4 5 6 7 8 4 5 6 7 8
Flapping frequency (Hz) Flapping frequency (Hz)

120 50
1m/s 2m/s 1m/s 2m/s
V∞ V∞
3m/s 4m/s 45 3m/s 4m/s
100 5m/s 6m/s 5m/s 6m/s
40
ƒ = 8 Hz 35
80
30
FV (gF)

FT (gF)

60 25
20
40
15
10
20
Figure 21.
5
ƒ = 8 Hz Theoretical variation of
0 0 F V and F T with VN and
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
flapping frequency
s (degrees) s (degrees)
 IJIUS gradually increases with VN and increases sharply at higher VN unlike the thrust
1,1 force (Figure 21(b)) that decreases with increasing VN. Thus climb rate could be
increased by increasing VN.
Figure 21(c) shows that the average vertical force is increased by only about 1.2 gF
per unit increase in flapping frequency, at VN ¼ 6 m/s and this slope reduces as VN
reduces. However, from Figure 21(d), there is a drastic increase of average thrust
54 with frequency increasing. With increasing speed, VN this increase in average thrust
reduces. Thus to accelerate forward, flapping frequency should be increased.
Figure 21(e) shows that the vertical force increases with increase in as but the slope
reduces as VN decreases. But from Figure 21(f) the average thrust force reduces by
only a few gF with increase in as and the slope becomes steeper at higher VN. Thus by
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increasing as the ornithopter can be made to gain altitude without changing VN.

Fabrication of the protoype

The wing
The existing wing design consists of a carbon fiber spar and three stiffeners pasted on
a polythene membrane. When the stiffener is pasted on a membrane, the membrane
can have a twist about the stiffener. During the upstroke, there is about 50-60 percent of
the wing (hand wing) near the root producing lift and the remaining (arm wing)
producing thrust. Figure 22 shows the schematic of the present design where the
cambered stiffeners “1” and “2” comprise the hand wing part and produce positive
vertical force during upstroke and downstroke. The straight stiffener “3” is placed
almost parallel to the wing spar provides positive camber during upstroke as well as
reverse camber during the upstroke. A membrane coinciding through these stiffeners
thus correspond to the nearest twist profile.
During downstroke the high pressure below the wing gives a positive camber from
root to tip whereas during upstroke, the high pressure over the wing causes the reverse
camber near the tip but due to the stiffener arrangement in the hand wing “A,” a
positive camber is maintained at all times. This is illustrated in Figure 23 showing the
model ornithopter developed by the author during a wind tunnel experiment.
The twisting and deformation takes place passively due to the wing loading so it
also implies that once the twist of the wing is fixed this way, it will be providing the
desired performance only at this designed speed and flapping frequency.

A B

Hinge
Figure 22. axis
Schematic of the existing 2
design showing the Carbon fiber spar
positive cambered “A” and
negative cambered “B” 1
Polythene membrane
during the upstroke
Balsa stiffeners
 Upstroke Downstroke Modelling of
flapping flight

55
Reverse camber
Positive camber
Figure 23.
Notes: During the (a) upstroke and (b) downstroke. Filmed using a high-speed camera during Camber distributions
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wind tunnel testing

The fuselage and mechanism

This is a small size ornithopter which weighs 32 g with a wing span of 50 cm tip to tip.
The structure is made with an integrated gearbox of 26:1 gear ratio. The Flapping
motion is accomplished with a 4 bar mechanism. Both the wings flap symmetrically
and are hinged on the same shaft. The fuselage is made from light weight balsa wood.
The crankshafts and linkages are made from 1.2 mm steel wire. The wings are hinged
to a common pin named the hinge axis and is used as a reference. The connecting rod is
connected end to end by a ball joint. Figure 24 shows a schematic of the design layout
and mechanism.

Kinematic analysis
At the full throttle, the crankshaft rotates at 504 rpm ( f ¼ 8.4 Hz). Motion analysis
simulations using SolidWorkst-Motion has been performed and the rpm is set to 5.04
instead of 504 rpm crankshaft speed for better accuracy of the solver. The wing
position, Ø with time data are obtained. The angular velocity and angular acceleration
were determined by taking the first and second derivative of wing position,
respectively.
For a given flapping frequency f, the time axis is scaled depending on
different flapping frequencies to get the angular velocities and acceleration as a
function of time (T ):
T
t¼ ð32Þ
f 60 100
504

Wing spar

Hinge axis

Connecting rod

Figure 24.
A SolidWorkst model of
Crank shaft the gear box and
mechanism integrated
with the fuselage
 IJIUS where f is the flapping frequency (Hz); T the time values at 5.04 rpm of the crank shaft;
1,1 t the time values at a given rpm of the crankshaft.
The plots in Figure 25 show the angular displacement, angular velocity and angular
acceleration of the wing at a flapping frequency of 7.3 Hz. The wing starts from the
topmost position, i.e. from the start of the downstroke. The arrow mark in the left most
position indicates the start of the cycle with the wing at the topmost position,
56 01 indicates the wing level position. The wing attains a maximum of 351 in the topmost
position and a minimum of 201 at the bottom most position. This provides an average
dihedral angle during the flapping cycle and increases roll stability. In the angular
velocity plot dØ/dt is 0 when the wings are at the topmost and bottom most position.
At this point where dØ/dt is 0 the acceleration d2Ø/dt2 is maximum. The maximum
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d2Ø/dt2 occurs when the wing is the topmost position whereas minimum d2Ø/dt2
occurs when the wing is the lowest position. It may also be noted that the cycle

D U

40
Wing position (degrees)

20

–20
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Time (s)

30
Angular velocity (rad/sec)

20

10

–10

–20

–30
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Time (s)

2000
Angular acceleration

1000
(rad/sec2)

Figure 25. 0
(a) A plot of angular
displacement vs time, (b)
angular velocity vs time –1000
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
and (c) angular
Time (s)
acceleration vs time
Note: D, downstroke; U, upstroke
 average of d2Ø/dt2 is zero which obviously means there no net contribution of the Modelling of
reciprocating inertia forces of the wing in producing either lift or thrust. flapping flight
The effect of the inertia forces of the wing shall have some contribution separately
during the upstroke and downstroke so the wing is made as light as possible. There is
intake of energy when accelerating the wing and while decelerating the same
energy is released only due to its inertia. Only in a conservative field the work done
by the inertia forces will be zero. Horst Räbiger’s (n.d.) ornithopter used springs that 57
stored energy during the upstroke and released during the downstroke in his
radio-controlled ornithopter, EV7.

Experimental validation
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Setup and procedure

Experiments are carried out in a wind tunnel having contraction ratio 6, cross-section
914 mm  609 mm, tunnel operating speed of 1-35 m/s with turbulent intensity of
less than 0.25 percent in the speed range of 1-6 m/s. At higher speed the turbulent
intensity of the tunnel is o0.4 percent.
The model is fixed on an ATI Nano-43 load cell and placed in the middle of the test
section which is of 1,500 mm length. The resolution of force transducer is 1/640 N and
frequency of measurement is 1 kHz. The data have been acquired with a simultaneous
sample PCI DAQ card NI PCI6220 of National Instruments. A digital inclinometer
(model-Clinotronic Plus IR Digital Inclinometer) is used to measure and set the model
at a given as. A schematic view of the setup is shown in Figures 26 and 27. The camera
is used to record the position of the wing as the load cell records the forces generated.
For this paper, the average forces over a cycle are noted over a flapping cycle. A DC
power supply was used instead of the existing lithium battery and the radio
transmitter is used to control the flapping frequency only.

Tunnel wall

Front view of the model

High speed camera

Load cell

RC transmitter
DAQ
card
+
Figure 26.
Schematic view of the
DC power source experimental setup
Workstation 1 Workstation 2
 IJIUS
1,1 Inclinometer Air flow

Pivot for changing s

58

Start with adjustable

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Figure 27. length for changing Load cell

Schematic side view s
of the model inside the
Tunnel wall
wind tunnel

Experiments are carried out to determine the performance at design and off-design
flying conditions. Flapping frequency, as and freestream velocity is varied in the
experiments. To determine the force due to wings only, forces are also measured with
the model frame removing the wings for the same parameters and subtracted from the
forces obtained from the model tests. The details of the experiments can be obtained
from (Ghosh et al., 2012).

Comparison with theory

The experimental results have been used to validate the predictions of the theory
from yI.B. Figure 28 shows the variation of average vertical and thrust forces with VN
at different flapping frequencies and as. The forces due to the wings are calculated
by subtracting the contribution due to the fuselage tail and fixture. From
Figure 28(a and c) it is observed that the average vertical force matches well with
the theory at low freestream velocities. It is interesting to note that the theoretical
average thrust force. The trend is also observed for different as varying from 01 to 71 as
seen from Figure 28(b) and (d).
The actual electrical power consumed to cruise is around 3 W. This includes the
power required by the servos and electronics. There is also power loss due to inertia
forces of the flapping wings. The drive train also would claim its friction losses.
Besides, unsteady forces also would add up to the theoretical power estimation. The
motor used could produce 10 Watts of power at its full potential. Weighing at only 3 g
this motor could easily overcome the losses.

Conclusion and future scope

A simple quasi-steady model is used for designing the ornithopter with a novel
aerodynamics twist distribution to achieve a sustained flight. The circulation
distribution is obtained during the upstroke and downstroke which is used to calculate
the spanwise distribution of vertical force and thrust force during the upstroke and
downstroke, respectively. Most of the vertical force and thrust force is produced during
the downstroke whereas due to the twist and camber distribution in upstroke, the part
of the wing near the root produces positive vertical force but negative thrust
(drag) whereas the part near the tip produces negative vertical force but positive
 140 30 Modelling of
7.03 Hz
120 4.36 Hz 25
7.03 Hz
4.36 Hz
flapping flight
7.03 Hz (expt)
20 7.03 Hz (expt)
100 4.36 Hz (expt) 4.36 Hz (expt)
15
FV (gF )

FT (gF )
80
10
60 5 59
40 0
–5
20
s=7° –10 s=7°
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0 –15
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
V∞ (m/s) V∞ (m/s)

80
7.03 Hz 30
70 4.36 Hz 7.03 Hz
25 4.36 Hz
7.03 Hz (expt)
60 7.03 Hz (expt)
4.36 Hz (expt) 20 4.36 Hz (expt)
50
15
FV (gF )

FT (gF )

40 10
30 5
20 0 s=3°
Figure 28.
10 s=3° –5 Comparison of theoretical
and experimental results
0 –10 (effect of freestream
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
velocity)
V∞ (m/s) V∞ (m/s)

thrust. It is the portion of the wing near the tip also known as the hand-wing which
mainly produces the thrust forces and the central part also known as arm wing
produces most of the vertical force to sustain the weight. The theory predicted trends
of performance is verified with the wind tunnel experiments which shows that such
simple theory can provide a quick guideline for fabrication of bird size flapping model.
Based on the calculations a prototype has been fabricated and successfully flown. The
inflight predictions in y I.B reveal that climb rate could be increased by increasing VN.
To accelerate forward, flapping frequency should be increased. Thus by increasing as
the ornithopter can be made to gain altitude at the same VN.
The theory presented here served to be a quick design tool for a preliminary design.
The theory can be modified to take unsteady forces into account and estimate the
forces over a complete flapping cycle. The wing twisting and camber distribution takes
place passively in these wings and the performance of the wings is highly influenced
by the position of the stiffeners. A more advanced theory is needed which can predict
the optimum design for giving directional stiffness to the wing membrane.
Flow visualization and PIV can be done to find out the spanwise circulation
distribution and further explore the depths of aerodynamics of flapping flight at
different flying conditions. Validation can be done in more detail by motion tracking
systems to get the correct wing deformation and verified with the assumed geometry.
 IJIUS The wing deforms at higher wing loads so the effect of aero-elasticity can also
1,1 be included in the future study.
The prototypes developed in this work fly by flapping and twisting of the wings.
The wings flap up keeping the spar straight, unlike real birds that fold their wing
during upstroke to reduce the upstroke effort and thus fly more efficiently and steadily.
The aerodynamics of this effect can also be studied and implemented to make a better
60 and efficient bio-mimicking flapping wing vehicle. There is a major area of study in the
flight stability and control of flapping wing flight. The effect of change of stroke plane
will also be useful as this can enable short take-off and landing possibility. A UAV
capable of doing this will be of great demand.
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Further reading
Banerjee, A., Ghosh, S.K. and Das, D. (2011), “Aerodynamics of flapping wing at low Reynolds
numbers: force measurement and flow visualization”, ISRN Mechanical Engineering,
Vol. 2011, doi:10.5402/2011/162687.

About the authors

Joydeep Bhowmik is a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering, IIT Kanpur.
Debopam Das is Associate Professor of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT
Kanpur. Debopam Das is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: das@iitk.ac.in
Saurav Kumar Ghosh is a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering IIT Kanpur.

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