Department of Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Institute of Road and Bridge, Guangdong Provincial Academy of Building Research Group Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, China.
PLoS One. 2020 Nov 10;15(11):e0241677. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241677. eCollection 2020.
A manta ray biomimetic glider is designed and studied with both laboratory experiments and numerical simulations with a new dynamic update method called the motion-based zonal mesh update method (MBZMU method) to reveal its hydrodynamic performance. Regarding the experimental study, an ejection gliding experiment is conducted for qualitative verification, and a hydrostatic free-fall experiment is conducted to quantitatively verify the reliability of the corresponding numerical simulation. Regarding the numerical simulation, to reduce the trend of nose-up movement and to obtain a long lasting and stable gliding motion, a series of cases with the center of mass offset forward by different distances and different initial angles of attack have been calculated. The results show that the glider will show the optimal gliding performance when the center of mass is 20mm in front of the center of geometry and the initial attack angle range lies between A0 = -5° to A0 = -2.5° at the same time. The optimal gliding distance can reach six times its body length under these circumstances. Furthermore, the stability of the glider is explained from the perspective of Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) configuration.
设计并研究了蝠鲼仿生滑翔机，通过实验室实验和数值模拟进行研究，采用了一种新的动态更新方法，称为基于运动的分区网格更新方法（MBZMU 方法），以揭示其水动力性能。关于实验研究，进行了弹射滑翔实验进行定性验证，并进行了静水自由落体实验进行定量验证相应数值模拟的可靠性。关于数值模拟，为了减少抬头运动的趋势并获得持久稳定的滑翔运动，计算了一系列质心向前偏移不同距离和不同初始攻角的情况。结果表明，当质心位于几何中心前方 20mm 处并且同时初始攻角范围位于 A0=-5°到 A0=-2.5°之间时，滑翔机将表现出最佳的滑翔性能。在这些情况下，最佳滑翔距离可以达到其体长的六倍。此外，从混合翼身（BWB）配置的角度解释了滑翔机的稳定性。
