The flow field and forces on an isolated oscillating NACA 0012 airfoil in a uniform flow is studied using viscous vortex particle method. The simulations are carried out at very low chord (c) based Reynolds number (Re=1000), motivated by the current interest in development of Micro Air Vehicles (MAV). The airfoil is forced to oscillate in both heave and pitch at different normalized oscillation frequencies (f), which is represented by the non-dimensional reduced frequency fc/U).( From the unsteady loading on the airfoil, the net energy transfer to the airfoil is calculated to determine the propensity for the airfoil to undergo self-induced oscillations or flutter at these very low Reynolds numbers. The simulations are carried out using a viscous vortex particle method that utilizes discrete vortex elements to represent the vorticity in the flow field. After validation of the code against test cases in the literature, simulations are first carried out for the stationary airfoil at different angles of attack, which shows the stall characteristics of the airfoil at this very low Reynolds numbers. For the airfoil oscillating in heave, the airfoil is forced to oscillate at different reduced frequencies at a large angle of attack in the stall regime. The unsteady loading on the blade is obtained at different reduced frequencies. This is used to calculate the net energy transfer to the airfoil from the flow, which is found to be negative in all cases studied. This implies that stall flutter or self-induced oscillations are not possible under the given heave conditions. The wake vorticity dynamics is presented for the different reduced frequencies, which show that the leading edge vortex dynamics is progressively more complex as the reduced frequency is increased from small values. For the airfoil oscillating in pitch, the airfoil is forced to oscillate about a large mean angle of attack corresponding to the stall regime. The unsteady moment on the blade is obtained at different reduced frequencies, and this is used to calculate the net energy transfer to the airfoil from the flow, which is found to be positive in all cases studied. This implies that stall flutter or self-induced oscillations are possible in the pitch mode, unlike in the heave case. The wake vorticity dynamics for this case is found to be relatively simple compared to that in heave. The results of the present simulations are broadly in agreement with earlier stall flutter studies at higher Reynolds numbers that show that stall flutter does not occur in the heave mode, but can occur in the pitch mode. The main difference in the present very low Reynolds number case appears to be the broader extent of the excitation region in the pitch mode compared to large Re cases studied earlier. region in the pitch mode compared to large Re cases studied earlier.

Purpose - The paper presents a theoretical framework that describes the aerodynamics of a falling maple (Acer pseudoplatanus) seed. --- Methodology - A semi-empirical method is developed that provides a ratio stating how much longer a seed falls in air compared to freefall. The generated lift is calculated by evaluating the integral of two-dimensional airfoil elements using a preliminary falling speed. This allows for the calculation of the definitive falling speed using Blade Element Momentum Theory (BEMT); hereafter, the fall duration in air and in freefall are obtained. Furthermore, the input-variables of the calculation of lift are transformed to require only the length and width of the maple seed. Lastly, the method is applied to two calculation examples as a means of validation. --- Findings - The two example calculations gave percentual errors of 5.5% and 3.7% for the falling speed when compared to measured values. The averaged result is that a maple seed falls 9.9 times longer in air when released from 20 m; however, this result is highly dependent on geometrical parameters which can be accounted for using the constructed method. --- Research limitations - Firstly, the coefficient of lift is unknown for the shape of a maple seed. Secondly, the approximated transient state is yet to be verified by measurement. --- Originality / Value - The added value of this report lies in the reduction of simplifications compared to BEMT approaches. In this way a large amount of accuracy is achieved due to the inclusion of many geometrical parameters, even though simplicity is maintained. This has been accomplished through constructing a simple three-step method that is fundamental and essentially non-iterative.