Aerodynamic performance of dragonfly wing with well-designed corrugated section in gliding flight

Dragonflies possess the highly corrugated wings which distinguish from the ordinary airfoils. To unlock the secrets of the dramatic flight ability of dragonflies, it will be of great significance to investigate the aerodynamic contribution of the corrugations. In this paper, a group of corrugated airfoils were specially designed based on the geometrical characteristics of a typical dragonfly wing. The two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations were solved using the finite volume method, and the coefficients of lift and drag of the studied airfoils were calculated and compared with those of a flat airfoil and a NACA0008 airfoil. The obtained numerical results illustrated that well-designed corrugated airfoils can enhance the lift-drag ratio in the condition of steady flow and maintain the steadiness of the flow field at low Reynolds numbers (500-12000). To approach the optimized state, corrugation amplitude could be considered as a key parameter to describe the irregularities of the corrugated wings. These results will inspire the design of MAVs. Copyright © 2015 Tech Science Press.