Fluid mechanics of microscale flight

Recent advancements in nanotechnology, materials, manufacturing, and electronic sensors have raised interest in building increasingly small micro air vehicles (MAVs). These aircraft are presently built and flown with wingspans on the order of ten centimeters. Future MAVs, with wingspans below one centimeter, have wide ranging applications in remote sensing.; The aerodynamics of present and future MAVs cannot be analysed using the classical techniques developed for conventional aircraft. Their flight, like that of insects, involves strong viscous and unsteady effects. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become an integral tool in the design of modern aircraft. In this dissertation, CFD tools are created to facilitate the analysis and design of MAVs.; After examining the relevant physics and mechanism of microscale flight, a palette of tools is developed. First, two approaches to generating grids around a moving, deforming body are explored. These techniques, utilizing three dimensional Bézier hyperpatches and non-uniform rational B-splines, are applied to prototype MAV shapes.; A numerical method is developed to integrate the compressible Navier-Stokes equations on a deforming grid, utilizing upwinded differences and a finite volume approach. These tools are then utilized to design and simulate the flow about a prototype MAV. The resulting flow patterns are examined, and suggest that these tools are appropriate means by which to study microscale flight.