Thrust Enhancement through a Tandem Mode of Flapping Wing in Micro Flow

In this study, based on previous studies, the thrust generated by using flapping tandem wings is examined. We studied on the relationship between the parameters for characterizing oscillatory tandem wings (namely, the Strouhal number and Reynolds number) for thrust generation in micro flow regime. At each Reynolds number, Strouhal number, heaving amplitude, distance between tandem wings, and phase difference are varied and the flapping motions of tandem mode are calculated to find the optimum conditions for generating thrust. As a result, comparing with a single flapping mode, we found that the minimum Strouhal number for generating thrust is shifted down up to approximately 25% when the tandem flapping mode is applied.