• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.390-396
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• 2007

In the present study, we have developed a flapping wing using a smart material to mimic the nature's flyers, birds. The wing consists of composite frames, a flexible PVC film and a surface actuator, and the main wing motions are flapping, twisting and camber motions. To change the camber, a Macro-Fiber Composite(MFC) is used as the surface actuator, and it's structural response is analyzed by the use of piezoelectric-thermal analogy. To measure the lift and thrust simultaneously, a test stand consisting of two load cells is manufactured. Some aerodynamic tests are performed for the wing in a subsonic wind tunnel to evaluate the dynamic characteristics. Experimental results show that the main lift is mostly affected by the forward velocity and the pitch angle, but the thrust is mostly affected by the flapping frequency. The effect of the camber generated by the MFC actuator can produce the sufficient lift increment of up to 24.4% in static condition and 20.8% in dynamic condition.