A PROJECT REPORT

ANALYSIS OF CORRUGATED AIRFOIL

as
MINOR PROJECT - I

DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

PARUL UNIVERSITY
P.O. Limda, Ta: Waghodia
Dist. Vadodara- 391 760, Gujarat, INDIA
Academic Year : 2019-20
A PROJECT REPORT
 CERTIFICATE
DATE:

THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE DISSERTATION ENTITLED “ ANALYSIS OF

CORRUGATED AIRFOIL” HAS BEEN CARRIED OUT BY;

VISHAL MAHYAVANSHI (170303101083)

JASH BHAGAT (170303101079)

PREM PANCHAL (170303101086)

ANAND VIRAMGAMA (170303101074)

UNDER MY GUIDANCE IN FULFILMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF

ENGINEERING IN AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING (5

th SEMESTER) OF PARUL UNIVERSITY,

DURING THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2019-20.

PROF. RAJEEV BAGHELA PROF. AJAY VISHWATH

PROJECT GUIDE PROF. SOWMYA GUNDLATHOTI

PROJECT HEAD

PROF. JALPA ZALAVADIYA

EXTERNAL EXAMINER
EXTERNAL EXAMINER
HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been
possible without the kind support and help of faculties. We would like to
extend our sincere thanks to all of them.

With immense pleasure we express our deep and sincere gratitude, regards

and thanks to our project guide Prof. Rajeev Baghela for his excellent guidance,

invaluable suggestions and continuous encouragement at all the stages of our

project work. As a guide he has a great influence on us, both as a person and as

a professional.
 ABSTRACT

This project deals with the aerodynamic performance of corrugated airfoil at

range of low Reynolds number. This study represents the transient nature of
corrugated airfoil at low Reynolds number where flow is assumed to be
laminar, unsteady, incompressible and two dimensional. we are analyzing the
characteristics of corrugated airfoil which is totally different than typical airfoil.
This study also focused on the Micro Air Vehicle. We have taken the
corrugated airfoil and analyze it at different Reynolds number. Corrugated
airfoil has different corrugation angle itself. We are analyzing corrugated airfoil
by using a commercial computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software.
 INDEX

CONTENTS PAGE NO.

CHAPTER 1 07

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2 09

LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER 3 10

DESIGN OF CORRUGATED AIRFOIL

CHAPTER 4 12

ANALYSIS
GRAPH

CHAPTER 5 15

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 6 17

APPLICATION
 TABLE OF CONTENT

FIGURE (1) : Design of corrugated airfoil

FIGURE (2) : Meshing of airfoil surroundings

FIGURE (3) : Velocity magnitude

FIGURE (4) : Static pressure

FIGURE (5) : Density

FIGURE (6) : Drag graph

 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION :

From times as early as mankind thought of flying, the designers have always
tried to imitate nature so as to obtain the advantages of a naturally flying
creature. This mimicking of nature only led to the invention of aircraft and
other airborne vehicles, but never has anyone been able to fully obtain the
features of natural creatures. One such topic that is being researched
extensively nowadays is corrugations. Corrugations by definition are a series of
crests (maxima) and troughs (minima). If the wing of a dragonfly is taken and
cut through its cross section then it yields these series of crests and troughs.
These can be considered as an airfoil and can be extruded to form a wing.
Though the major portion of a dragonfly’s flight profile consists of flapping,
various research has already proven the advantages of this kind of profile in
gliding as well. Many insects have these kinds of corrugations in their wing
structure but the primary reason to select dragonfly’s corrugation is based on a
theory known as dynamic smoothing.

“Corrugated” means, shaped into alternating parallel grooves and ridges (I.e.
waves in sea).

Corrugated aerofoil is basically an aerofoil which is inspired by dragonfly wings.

The deep understanding of nature, how it overcomes the problem of flight in

natural flyers like birds and insects have led to tremendous improvements in
the aerodynamics of manmade aerial vehicles.

A number of insects, including locusts, dragonflies and damselflies, employ

wings that are not smooth or simple cambered surfaces.

The cross-section of these insect wing have well defined corrugated

configuration such corrugated design was found to be of great importance to
the stability of ultra light wings to handle the span wise bending forces and
mechanical wear that the wing experiences during flapping.

The corrugated wing design does not appear to be very suitable for flight
because it would have very poor aerodynamic performance (i.e. low lift and
extremely high drag) according to traditional aerofoil design principles.
However, corrugated dragonfly wings in steady flow or gliding flight have led to
surprising conclusion: A corrugated dragonfly wings could have comparable or
even better aerodynamic performances (i.e. higher lift and bigger lift to drag
ratio) than conventional streamline aerofoils in low Reynolds no. regime in
which dragonfly usually fly.

Among natural flyers, dragonflies have unique features and flight capabilities.
Their flight performance far exceeds many other flying insect species. The
complex morphology of the dragonfly wing cross section (airfoil) is very
different from the traditional closed, thick and smooth airfoils of low Reynolds
number airplane. Dragonfly wings are highly corrugated, which increases the
stiffness and strength of the wing significantly and results in a lightweight
structure with good aerodynamic performance. Corrugation provokes an early
transition to turbulent flow over the two-dimensional airfoil, permitting
reattachment of the flow over the wing called laminar bubble. Dragonfly being
a natural flyer the vein and the membrane structure are flexible in nature.
Therefore; it will be difficult to predict the behavior of corrugated wing during
flight condition. It has a flapping frequency between 30 Hz and 50 Hz.
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Dwivedi YD has proved that presence of corrugations on wing surface improves

the flow characteristics for low to moderate Reynolds number. The reason for the
increased lift coefficient at higher angles of attack for corrugated profiles is due to
the large pressure difference between upper and lower surfaces which is not
observed in conventional NACA profile.

Khan MA has proved that the vortices formed on the corrugated aerofoil and
shed into its wakes produces lower integral force fluctuation because of the its
upstream peak height which allows the flow to reattach near the trailing edge of
the airfoil by delaying flow separation.

Kirubakar K, Gayathri P, Sindhuja V, Senthamilseyi A, they obtain the result of

analysis of corrugated wing section which shows that the newly generated profile
of airfoil is efficient than the current section in study. The values obtained of L/D
ratio for 1. Flat plate:1, 2. NACA -0015:0.2435 and 3. Enhanced top profile
corrugated airfoil: 3.975.

Md AkhtarKhan, Chinmaya padhy, they did the aerodynamic and structural

analysis on the bio-mimetic corrugated airfoil. That the corrugated wing can
withstand both aerodynamic and structural load which is most suitable for future
MAVs and UAVs.
 CHAPTER 3

DESIGN OF CORRUGATED AIRFOIL

Inspired from dragonfly wing corrugated airfoil was invented. It has corrugations
which makes it different from the other typical airfoils.

With the help of creo parametric 5.0 we created a corrugated airfoil whose
coordinates are:

UPPER SURFACE:

x y z

0 0 0
0 0.02 0
0.066 0.02 0
0.124 0.058 0
0.189 0.016 0
0.271 0.073 0
0.341 0.013 0
0.398 0.051 0
0.553 0.051 0
0.61 0.015 0
0.689 0.043 0
0.772 0.014 0
0.833 0.01 0
0.897 0.036 0
1.005 0.02 0
LOWER SURFACE:

x y z

0 0 0
0 -0.02 0
0.08 -0.02 0
0.128 0.01 0
0.187 -0.029 0
0.272 0.023 0
0.337 -0.036 0
0.415 0.014 0
0.537 0.014 0
0.606 -0.027 0
0.688 0.001 0
0.77 -0.028 0
0.839 -0.032 0
0.912 -0.005 0
0.995 -0.02 0

Fig 1: Design of corrugated airfoil

 CHAPTER 4
ANALYSIS:

Fig 2: Meshing of airfoil surroundings

Fig 3: velocity magnitude

Fig 4: static pressure

Fig 5: Density
Fig 6: Drag graph
 CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION:

We observed that the vortices formed on the corrugated aerofoil

and shed into its wakes produces lower integral force fluctuation because of the
its upstream peak height which allows the flow to reattach near the trailing edge
of the aerofoil by delaying flow separation.

From this we conclude that corrugated airfoil generates more lift as

compared to standard airfoil (in specific conditions) & has more L/D ratio. Thus,
we can say that it is more efficient than the typical airfoil.
 CHAPTER 6

APPLICATION:

The design, analysis, Fabrication and test of the performance of

MAVs are Becoming increasingly important due to it can be Regarded as small and
mobile units operating in severe Environments such as urban areas or
unconventional Operations anywhere. Currently, MAVs are classified as fixed
wing, rotating wing or flapping wing MAV. Even the design concepts of flapping
MAVs are inspired from observations on the flight behavior of insects and birds.
There are great challenges in the development of flapping wing MAV because the
unsteady low Reynolds number aerodynamic characteristic of flapping wings are
still unclear.