Related papers: Bistability in the rotational motion of rigid and …
Insects and birds are often faced by opposing requirements for agile and stable flight. Here, we explore the interplay between aerodynamic effort, maneuverability, and stability in a model system that consists of a $\Lambda$-shaped flyer…
We investigate the hovering dynamics of rigid bodies with up-down asymmetry placed in oscillating background flows. Recent experiments on inanimate pyramid-shaped objects in oscillating flows with zero mean component demonstrate that the…
Stability of flapping flight, a natural requirement for flying insects, is one of the major challenges for designing micro aerial vehicles (MAVs). To better understand how a flying insect could stabilize itself during hover, we have…
Birds rely on active high-acceleration morphing and flapping to navigate complex airflows, but they can also maintain stable fixed-wing postures under persistent atmospheric disturbances. Here, we show that avian wings exhibit aerodynamic…
Using a flapping robot in a wind tunnel, we show that flapping faster amplifies existing longitudinal static stability (focusing on the pitch stiffness) and can even make an unstable flier stable. We show that stability for a flapper is not…
Saving energy and enhancing performance are secular preoccupations shared by both nature and human beings. In animal locomotion, flapping flyers or swimmers rely on the flexibility of their wings or body to passively increase their…
A pinned-free beam in axial fluid flow, subjected to feedback-based actuation at the pinned end, is investigated. The actuation may be a moment or a prescribed angle and it is proportional to the state (curvature, slope, or displacement) of…
Wing flexibility governs the flying performance of flapping wing flyers. Here, we use a self-propelled flapping-wing model mounted on a ``merry go round'' to investigate the effect of wing compliance on the propulsive efficiency of the…
The sliding friction of a dimer moving over a periodic substrate and subjected to an external force is studied in the steady state for arbitrary temperatures within a one-dimensional model. Nonlinear phenomena that emerge include dynamic…
We experimentally studied the effect of flexibility on the flow produced by sinusoidally pitching foil in quiescent fluid. The rigid foil produces a weak, divergent and meandering jet. On the contrary, the foil with a flexible flap produces…
Birds have a remarkable ability to perform complex maneuvers at post-stall angles of attack. The passive deployment of self-actuating covert feathers in response to unsteady flow separation while performing such maneuvers provides a passive…
We propose a multibody model of a freewing UAV. This model allows obtaining simulations of the UAV's behaviour and, in the future, to design a control law stabilising the entire flight envelope (hovering and forward flight). We also…
Hummingbirds and insects achieve outstanding flight performance by adapting their flapping motion to the flight requirements. Their wing kinematics can change from smooth flapping to highly dynamic waveforms, generating unsteady aerodynamic…
This paper presents the stability analysis of a system composed of rotating beams on a flexible, circular fixed ring, using the Routh-Hurwitz criterion. The model displayed has been fully developed within the rotating frame by use of an…
We address the flutter instability of a flexible plate immersed in an axial flow. This instability is similar to flag flutter and results from the competition between destabilising pressure forces and stabilising bending stiffness. In…
The influence of the bending rigidity of a flexible heaving wing on its propulsive performance in a two-dimensional imposed parallel flow is investigated in the inviscid limit. Potential flow theory is used to describe the flow over the…
This paper applies the UAV to the inspection of water diversion pipelines in hydropower stations. The diversion pipeline is an enclosed space, so the airflow disturbance caused by the rotation of the UAV blades and the strong air convection…
An elastic rod, straight in its undeformed state, has a mass attached at one end and a variable length, due to a constraint at the other end by a frictionless sliding sleeve. The constraint is arranged with the sliding direction parallel to…
This paper investigates stability analysis of flapping flight. Due to time-varying aerodynamic forces, such systems do not display fixed points of equilibrium. The problem is therefore approached via a limit cycle analysis based on Floquet…
This paper investigates the bistability of curved compression ramp (CCR) flows. It reports that both separated and attached states can be stably established even for the same boundary conditions, revealing that the ultimate stable states of…