Combined co-rotational beam/shell elements for fluid–structure interaction analysis of insect-like flapping wing

Flapping wing micro-air vehicles are biologically inspired by nature flyers, specifically insects and birds. Specifically, insect wings generally consist of veins and membrane components. In this study, a structural analysis considering the vein/membrane components of an insect-like flapping wing is presented. Co-rotational (CR) finite elements are adopted in order to consider the complex wing configuration including both vein and membrane. The CR beam elements with warping degrees of freedom are employed for veins and CR shell elements for the wing membrane. The present structural analysis is verified against the analytical results obtained by an existing software, and it is validated by comparison to existing results from the literature. A fluid–structure interaction analysis is then performed. In the procedure, an aerodynamic analysis based on three-dimensional preconditioned Navier–Stokes equations is employed. Finally, a comparative study with respect to the structural characteristics is conducted. As a result, an efficiency of the present structural analysis is confirmed by comparing with the existing software. It is found that the present FSI results are in good agreement with the existing experimental and numerical results. Moreover, the passive wing twist may have a significant influence on the hover performance.