A New Type of Flapping-wing Mechanism and the

Character Measurement
LIU Yun, Jiangang-Lv, Hongzhi-Teng
Dept Artillery engineering
Mechanical Engineering College,
Shijiazhuang,050003 China,
E-Mail: liuyun111700@tom.com

AbstractThe research background of bionic flapping-wing

mechanism is introduced; the characteristics and the application
prospect are analyzed. It is concluded that bionic flapping-wing
flying has better lift fore generation efficiency, which is the
development trend of aerial vehicles. By the scaling effect analysis
on bionic flying mechanism, it is presented that bionic flying
could be realized more easily when the sizes are decreased. In this
article, the flying mechanism of inset and Aves was studied and
the high lift force mechanism of flapping-winging was concluded.
In order to make the flapping-flying easier, we design a new type
flapping-flying mechanism. A set of flapping-wing move
comparatively. It can provide lift force all the time. We test the
lift force in the condition of different speed and different
frequency. The lift effect is validated on a simple suspend flight
device. An experimental platform to measure the aerodynamic
force is devised and developed by ourselves. On this equipment,
the aerodynamics force of the prototype is test. The result is that
enhancing speed or frequency can improve lift force in evidence.

Index Termsflapping-wing mechanism, measurement

I.

INTRODUCTION

Aircraft has three different fly fashions: fixed-wing, rotarywing and flapping-wing. Flapping-wing fly imitate the
principle of biology flying. Comparing with general aircraft,
the aerodynamics character of mini aircraft is quite different.
6
8
Reynolds number between 10 - 10 for general aircraft, but

101 - 10 5 for mini aircraft. Between this Reynolds number,

none of flyers in nature such as bird and insect adopt fixedwing or rotary-wing but flapping-wing. This fashion has higher
agility and lower energy consuming. Therefore using for
reference the fly fashion adopted by flyers in the nature is a
project to resolve the difficulty that mini aircraft fly under the
condition of low Reynolds number.
Compare with fixed-wing and rotary-wing, flapping-wing
has three merits. 1. It can produce lift force and push force at
the same time.2. Fly state can be easily controlled. Adjusting
the parameter of wing can change the fly state. So it can omit
some control side, the frame can be predigested. 3. The push

978-1-4244-2800-7/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

1724

efficiency is higher. Flapping-wings push efficiency can reach

85.
The mechanism of flapping-wing is complete different from
traditional fixed-wing and rotary-wing. It is more complicated.
People's understanding to this realm is still not very perfect so
far. Now the research which rushes toward wing flight is from
the living creature fluid mechanics or the bionics of the flight
mechanism of angle to the bird and the insect carry on a
research at home and abroad. This aspect has already had a lot
of works.
II.

THE MECHANISM OF HIGH LIFT FORCE OF FLAPPINGWING

Since 70's in 20 centuries, People's research in rushing

toward wing flight is mainly lay particular emphasis on two
aspects. One is the kinetics observation; obtain the parameters
of clap frequency, the angle of clap and the obliquity of clap
plane; the other is placing animal wing in wind tunnel, carrying
on the dynamical test in the low speed, low Reynolds number,
Obtain the related experiment data. The results of test indicate
that the traditional flow theory cant explain the mechanism of
the lift fore produced by animal wing. Weis-Fogh find that the
main mechanism of high lift fore is rapid opening up after
yellow jacket fold its wings when he study the fly character of
yellow jacket. Since 90's in 20 centuries, people start to study
the course of none-normal flow and the mechanism detailed. It
consists of fast accelerating initially, rotating wing at
metaphase and fast turning in the end.
The study and analysis of high lift fore of bird and insect
are base on the experiment and theory of wing clapping.
Different bird and insect have different wing shape, Reynolds
number and clapping frequency. As long an the movement
fashion of wing is approximate, it can be explained by the
mechanism.
III.

STRUCTURE OF THE INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM

The intelligence test system contains a force sensor, a

charge amplifier, a low-pass filter, a digital sampling card, an
industrial control computer and the software of the test system.

ICIEA 2009

flapping-wing move comparatively. It can provide lift force all

the time. The structure as Fig. 3.

Figure 1.

Photo of the signal collection system

The basic principle of the piezoelectricity is the longitudinal

piezoelectric effect. The piezoelectricity force sensor is airtightness, great intensity, stiffness and has high resolution
capacity. Attracted by these advantages, we select the
piezoelectricity force transducer. The piezoelectricity sensor
can directly translate the force parameters into electric
parameters. Charge amplifier amplifies the signal and
translates it into voltage. The type of the Charge amplifier is
YE5861. It has the advantage of low-noise and antiinterference.
In order to filter the unnecessary high-frequency noise
signal, it is necessary for the low-pass filter to filter the noise
signals before A/D sampling. It is used to reject the highfrequency noise signals while passing the low-frequency
signals. The type of the Low Pass filter is YE3762.
Digital sampling card consist of switching circuit, highaccuracy programmed amplifier circuit, A/D circuit buffer
storage circuit and interface control logic circuit. The type of
the Digital sampling card is PCI-8335B.
PZT
sensor

Electric charge
amplifier

Lowpass
filter
Figure 4. The new structure of flapping-wing

Computer
system

Digital
sampling

The lift fore is F. so

Figure 3. Flowchart of the system

IV.

CD A 2
2
is the density of air, C D is coefficient of air resistance,
A is projection of wing, is comparative speed of wing and
F=

THE NEW STRUCTURE AND THE MEASUREMENT OF LIFT

FORCE

Simply imitating birds fly movement is too complex. It is

difficult to get achievement rely on materials and technologies
in existence. In order to make the flapping-flying easier, we
design a new type flapping-flying mechanism. A set of

1725

air.

A=0.35 m

We can see that F is direct ratio to area and square of

comparative speed. So if we increase the area and comparative
speed, we can get high lift force. The result of measurement of
lift force as Fig. 4.

V.
F(N)

A=0.25 m

f(hz)

A=0.35 m

F(N)
F(N)

REFERENCES
[1]

A=0.25 m

[2]

[3]

V(m/s)
[4]

Figure 5. The lift fore

3

2.5

[5]
[6]

CONCLUSION

Flapping-wing aerial vehicle is the application of the new

materials and technologies. It can provide lift force and push
force at the same time without additional push equipment. It is
easy to control the stance, so the control side can be neglected,
the structure of FMAV can be predigested, and the weight can
be alleviated. FMAV has high push efficiency, the efficiency
is higher than traditional push system, and it can arrive 85%.
But simply imitating birds fly movement is too complex. It is
difficult to get achievement rely on materials and technologies
in existence. The new design can provide lift force all the time.
Comparing with fixed wing and rotary-wing, flapping-wing
mechanism can integrate lift function and push function into
one system. It can fly long distance with little energy. It has
wide prospect in the military field, for example it can play
huge action in the area of low altitude detection, city campaign,
sudden assault, signal interference.

[7]

1.5

[8]

1
0.5
0
100

110

120

130
a/o

140

150

160

Figure 6. compare the results of the

experimentation and simulation

1726

Teng N. H.. The Development of a Computer Code For the Numerical

Solution of Unsteady, Inviscid and Incompressible Flow over an Airfoil.
Masters thesis, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Dept. of Aeronautics
and Astronautics, 1987.
Birch J. M. and Dickinsion M. H.. Spanwise Flow and the Attachment
of the Leading-edge Vortex on Insect Wings. Nature, 2001(412): pp729733
Platzer M.F., Jones K.D. and Lund T.G.. Experimental And
Computational Investigation Of Flapping Wing Propulsion For MicroAir Vehicles. Symposium of Low-Reynolds Number Vehicles,
University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 2000
Bhattacharya, K. and James, R. D.. Theory of Thin Films of Martensitic
Materials with Applications to Microactuators. J.Mech.Phys.Solids,
1999(47): pp531-576
.Sun Mao unsteady lift mechanisms in insect flight, advances in
mechanics, Vo32 No. 3 2002
Liu LAN, Fang Zong-de, Hou yu, Aerodynamic modeling and analysis
of flapping-wing MAV, journal of aerospace power, Vo20, Feb 2005
Zeng rui, Ang hai-song, Mei Yuan, Ji jian. Flexibility of flapping wing
and its effect on aerodynamic characteristic. Chinese journal of
computational mechanics, Vo22, 2005
Ramamurti R. and Sandberg W. Simulation of Flow about Flapping
Airfoils using Finite Element Incompressible Flow Solver. AIAA J.,
2001(39): pp253260