OpenFoam Simulations of Flow Over Flapping Wing Using Parallel Computing

Numerical simulations of flow over a flapping wing were conducted in this research using OpenFoam. The research aims to understand the aerodynamics of the perching motion of an SD7003 airfoil as well as the parallel performance of OpenFoam package on simulations of moving boundary problems. Multiple levels of nested grid were used, and the moving mesh method was utilized to implement the motion of the airfoil. In order to validate the accuracy of the simulation, a previously published perching motion case was tested and the results were compared to literature data. The results agree reasonably well with the compared data. Different perching motions were then implemented. One perching motion was linear and one was modified by a smoothing function controlled by a sharpness factor. Two Reynolds numbers were used in the study, 500 and 5000, and the Reynolds number effects were also investigated.