Abstract: Based on the areodynamic design of fixed wings for miniature air vehicle (MAV), the flow fields of Zimmerman and inverse Zimmerman wings with different long-short axis ratios (LSARs) are investigated numerically under low Reynolds numbers. The uncompressible viscous flow is solved by the eudocompressibility formulation. A third-order upwind scheme was used to discretize the convective terms based on Roe's approximate Riemann solver. The Baldwin-Barth one-equation turbulence model is used. Numerical results for Zimmerman and inverse Zimmerman wings agree well with the experimental data, showing correctness of the numerical methods. In this paper, the effect of different long-short axis ratios on areodynamic characteristics of two wing layouts is analyzed. The result shows that inverse Zimmerman has better lift coefficient than Zimmerman’s for the same LSAR, and the L/D coefficient is increased as the LSAR is decreased.

Key words:  low-aspect-ratio, inverse Zimmerman, low Reynold number, Zimmerman, miniature air vehicle (MAV)