Wind Tunnel Experiment on a Flying Bike Model

Abstract

In the upcoming years, a single type of vehicle may be used to achieve various mission objectives. Therefore, the vehicles are manufactured so that they have variable configuration for the required mission profile. Here we are talking about the changes in the overall geometry of the vehicle and therefore we are dealing the aerodynamic characteristics of the vehicle. Since these types of vehicles are exposed to different flight regimes, the main concern is to maintain their robust stability and control capability. The design of such vehicles is inspired by the nature itself. Such works were carried initially by the famous Leonardo Da Vinci whose works are still preserved in museums of France and Italy.For example, chicken use their wings to escape predator though they cannot continue the motion for long. They tend to do a kind of hop and flap motion. The problem was to develop flying bike with morphing wings. The key design parameters for the flying bike as mentioned are lift force generated (lift coefficient) to overcome road obstacle, the drag required to bring back the flying bike to road as per the requirement, the angle of morphed wing and fuel consumption. The design process was based upon the above parameters. After computation of the above parameters, the same was checked with the values obtained from the scale-down model (a 3D printing product) tested in wind tunnel. Since the flying needs the bike to go through a cycle from take-off to ascent to cruise to descent to landing on the road, it is necessary to check the design process at every stage of computation.

Keywords: Flying bike concept, computational fluid dynamics, morphing wing, wind tunnel experiment

Cite this Article

Somashekar V, Vikas K, Maria Nicholas Visuvasam. Wind Tunnel Experiment on a Flying Bike Model. Journal of Aerospace Engineering & Technology. 2018; 8(3): 26–33p.