Hoon Cheol Park

Wetting Characteristics of Insect Wing Surfaces

Biological tiny structures have been observed on many kinds of surfaces such as lotus leaves, which have an effect on the coloration of Morpho butterflies and enhance the hydrophobicity of natural surfaces. We investigated the micro-scale and nano-scale structures on the wing surfaces of insects and found that the hierarchical multiple roughness structures help in enhancing the hydrophobicity. After examining 10 orders and 24 species of flying Pterygotan insects, we found that micro-scale and nano-scale structures typically exist on both the upper and lower wing surfaces of flying insects. The tiny structures such as denticle or setae on the insect wings enhance the hydrophobicity, thereby enabling the wings to be cleaned more easily. And the hydrophobic insect wings undergo a transition from Cassie to Wenzel states at pitch/size ratio of about 20. In order to examine the wetting characteristics on a rough surface, a biomimetic surface with micro-scale pillars is fabricated on a silicon wafer, which exhibits the same behavior as the insect wing, with the Cassie-Wenzel transition occurring consistently around a pitch/width value of 20.

Effect of an Artificial Caudal Fin on the Performance of a Biomimetic Fish Robot Propelled by Piezoelectric Actuators

This paper addresses the design of a biomimetic fish robot actuated by piezoceramic actuators and the effect of artificial caudal fins on the fish robot’s performance. The limited bending displacement produced by a lightweight piezocomposite actuator was amplified and transformed into a large tail beat motion by means of a linkage system. Caudal fins that mimic the shape of a mackerel fin were fabricated for the purpose of examining the effect of caudal fin characteristics on thrust production at an operating frequency range. The thickness distribution of a real mackerel’s fin was measured and used to design artificial caudal fins. The thrust performance of the biomimetic fish robot propelled by fins of various thicknesses was examined in terms of the Strouhal number, the Froude number, the Reynolds number, and the power consumption. For the same fin area and aspect ratio, an artificial caudal fin with a distributed thickness shows the best forward speed and the least power consumption.

Direct measurement of slip flows in superhydrophobic microchannels with transverse grooves

Slippage effects in microchannels that depend on the surface characteristics are investigated, taking into account hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and superhydrophobic wettabilities. Microscale grooves are fabricated along the vertical walls to form superhydrophobic surfaces, which enable both the visualization of the flow field near the walls and the direct measurement of the slip length. Velocity profiles are measured using microparticle image velocimetry and those in hydrophilic glass, hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and superhydrophobic PDMS microchannels are compared. For the hydrophilic glass surface, the velocity near the wall smoothly decreases to zero, which is consistent with the well-known, no-slip boundary condition. On the other hand, for the flow in the hydrophobic PDMS microchannel, the velocity profile approaches some finite value at the wall, showing a slip length of approximately 2μm. In addition, to directly measure the velocity in the superhydrophobic microchannel, transverse groove...

Characteristics of a Beetle's Free Flight and a Flapping-Wing System that Mimics Beetle Flight

In this work, we first present a method to experimentally capture the free flight of a beetle (Allomyrina dichotoma), which is not an active flyer. The beetle is suspended in the air by a hanger to induce the free flight. This flight is filmed using two high-speed cameras. The high speed images are then examined to obtain flapping angle, flapping frequency, and wing rotation of the hind wing. The acquired data of beetle free flight are used to design a motor-driven flapper that can approximately mimic the beetle in terms of size, flapping frequency and wing kinematics. The flapper can create a large flapping angle over 140° with a large passive wing rotation angle. Even though the flapping frequency of the flapper is not high enough compared to that of a real beetle due to the limited motor torque, the flapper could produce positive average vertical force. This work will provide important experience for future development of a beetle-mimicking Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle (FWMAV).

Equivalent modeling for ionic polymer–metal composite actuators based on beam theories

Equivalent beam and equivalent bimorph beam models for IPMC (ionic polymer–metal composite) actuators are described in the ensuing paper. Important physical properties of IPMCs including Youngs modulus and electro-mechanical coupling coefficient were determined using the rule of mixture, bimorph beam equations, and measured force–displacement data of a cantilevered IPMC actuator. By using a beam equation with estimated physical properties, the actuation displacements of a cantilevered IPMC actuator were calculated to show an excellent agreement between the computed tip displacements and the measured data. Finite element analysis (FEA), along with the predetermined physical properties, was used to predict the force–displacement relationship of an IPMC actuator, which is key data to effectively design many engineering devices of interest. Indicated by the results from the FEA agreeing with the measured data, the proposed models can be adopted for modeling of IPMC actuators with advanced shapes and other boundary conditions.

Stable Vertical Takeoff of an Insect-Mimicking Flapping-Wing System Without Guide Implementing Inherent Pitching Stability

We briefly summarized how to design and fabricate an insect-mimicking flapping-wing system and demonstrate how to implement inherent pitching stability for stable vertical takeoff. The effect of relative locations of the Center of Gravity (CG) and the mean Aerodynamic Center (AC) on vertical flight was theoretically examined through static force balance consideration. We conducted a series of vertical takeoff tests in which the location of the mean AC was determined using an unsteady Blade Element Theory (BET) previously developed by the authors. Sequential images were captured during the takeoff tests using a high-speed camera. The results demonstrated that inherent pitching stability for vertical takeoff can be achieved by controlling the relative position between the CG and the mean AC of the flapping system.

Effects of corrugation of the dragonfly wing on gliding performance

We investigate the aerodynamic performance of the dragonfly wing, which has cross-sectional corrugation, via a static 2-dimensional unsteady simulation. Computational conditions are Re=150, 1400, and 10,000 with angles of attack ranging from 0 degrees to 40 degrees . From the computational results, lift coefficients are increased by the wing corrugation at all Reynolds number. However, the corrugation has little influence on the drag coefficients. The flows such as vortex in the valley of corrugation and near the edge of the corrugation are locally different from those of an elliptic wing. However, such local flows have little influence on the time averaged wing performance. From the numerical experiment presented in this study, it is determined that suction side corrugations of the wing have very little influence on increase of the lift coefficient at a positive angle of attack.

Characteristics of an Insect-mimicking Flapping System Actuated by a Unimorph Piezoceramic Actuator

This study introduces an insect-mimicking flapping-wing system, where the rotation, corrugation, and clapping of insect wings have been mimicked. Unlike most motor-driven flapping systems, the flapping in this system is actuated by a unimorph piezoceramic actuator. The artificial wings are first made of a thin polyethylene sheet and then corrugated. As the wings are assembled through a pitching hinge, they can passively rotate about the hinge during the flapping motion due to the resultant aerodynamic force. The effects of the rotation, corrugation, and clapping of the wings are experimentally explored with respect to the vertical force produced by the flapping system. A smoke-wire flow visualization is also conducted to confirm whether the flapping-wing system can generate leading edge and trailing edge vortices, which are essential for generating lift and thrust in insect flight.

Design and demonstration of a biomimetic wing section using a lightweight piezo-composite actuator (LIPCA)

This paper describes the design and evaluation of biomimetic wing sections, where the trailing edges of the wing sections are actuated by the piezoceramic actuator LIPCA (lightweight piezo-composite actuator). Thermal analogy based on linear elasticity was used for the design and analysis of the wing sections. In the actuation test of the wing sections, the effective deflection angle of the trailing edge was approximately five degrees at 300 V input. The predicted and measured actuation displacements agreed very well up to an input of 150 V. However, the real actuation displacement became larger than the estimated value for higher input voltages due to the material non-linearity of the lead zirconate titanate (PZT) wafer in the LIPCA. The biomimetic wing sections can be used for control surfaces of small scale unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

A modified blade element theory for estimation of forces generated by a beetle-mimicking flapping wing system

We present an unsteady blade element theory (BET) model to estimate the aerodynamic forces produced by a freely flying beetle and a beetle-mimicking flapping wing system. Added mass and rotational forces are included to accommodate the unsteady force. In addition to the aerodynamic forces needed to accurately estimate the time history of the forces, the inertial forces of the wings are also calculated. All of the force components are considered based on the full three-dimensional (3D) motion of the wing. The result obtained by the present BET model is validated with the data which were presented in a reference paper. The difference between the averages of the estimated forces (lift and drag) and the measured forces in the reference is about 5.7%. The BET model is also used to estimate the force produced by a freely flying beetle and a beetle-mimicking flapping wing system. The wing kinematics used in the BET calculation of a real beetle and the flapping wing system are captured using high-speed cameras. The results show that the average estimated vertical force of the beetle is reasonably close to the weight of the beetle, and the average estimated thrust of the beetle-mimicking flapping wing system is in good agreement with the measured value. Our results show that the unsteady lift and drag coefficients measured by Dickinson et al are still useful for relatively higher Reynolds number cases, and the proposed BET can be a good way to estimate the force produced by a flapping wing system.