Development and Investigation of a Flapping Rotor for Micro Air Vehicles

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dc.contributor.advisorChopra, Inderjiten_US
dc.contributor.authorFitchett, Brandon Kurten_US
dc.contributor.departmentAerospace Engineeringen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2007-09-28T14:58:20Z
dc.date.available2007-09-28T14:58:20Z
dc.date.issued2007-07-09en_US
dc.description.abstractThis thesis describes the concept, design and testing of a micro air vehicle rotor testbed capable of independently controlled blade rotation and powered blade flapping. The design, dubbed the "Flotor", combined the benefits of a conventional MAV helicopter rotor with avian based flapping motion. The Flotor was tested as a conventional rotor, a conventional rotor with powered blade flapping, and a torqueless, freely rotating rotor with powered blade flapping. As a conventional rotor with a maximum figure of merit of 0.5, the results from the Flotor were similar to previously published experiments. With conventional rotation plus powered blade flapping at up to 8 per rotor revolution at a reduced frequency of 0.6, the maximum thrust increased by up to 15% due to delayed stall. The torque required at moderate thrust levels was reduced by up to 30%. The results from a 2-D quasi-steady blade element momentum analysis predicted average rotor loads accurately below 20° collective. As the first attempt at a torqueless flapping MAV rotor, the Flotor was capable of producing thrust and blade loadings comparable to flying animals, but less than current MAVs.en_US
dc.format.extent3871133 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/7224
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledEngineering, Aerospaceen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolleddelayed stallen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledwingen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledknolleren_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledhelicopteren_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledbirden_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledinsecten_US
dc.titleDevelopment and Investigation of a Flapping Rotor for Micro Air Vehiclesen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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